Bittersweet Synthesis
by Peptuck
Summary: Ever asked the question what if? What would happen if aspects of different Fantasies were fused into a synthesis of stories, heroes, villians, death, and love? What would happen if Final Fantasies Seven and Eight were fused? What if....?
1. Prologue: Scars

_Foreword_

Bittersweet Synthesis is inspired by one of the great authors of Final Fantasy fanfiction, Darren "Edge" Shier (aka Daz Shier of ). I've long been a fan of his work and style, and Darren in fact inspired me to begin writing fanfiction based on Final Fantasy VIII.

At one point I was perusing , and I entered Darren's name in an effort to see if he had any fanfics on the site, and I was surprised to find he did. One of his fanfics caught my eye, an interesting and unique work with a tantalizing concept. It was titled "The Best of Both Worlds," and it offered up an intriguing question: what would happen if Final Fantasy VIII's characters were transplanted into Final Fantasy VII? Indeed, this fic was one that began to answer that question, with Squall replacing Cloud, Tifa replaced by Rinoa, and so on, combining elements of both of the great Fantasies to create something truly unique. Every character and group was changed, the backstories were transformed, yet the spirit of both games was, miraculously, preserved.

The truly sad part is that Darren never has finished this work, ending it shortly after the escape from Midgar. Thus, the question has remained unanswered.

Until now.

Darren never answered this question or forged this completely into the concept of transplanting characters from different Fantasies, which is, in the fanfiction world, a true tragedy and dissappointment. This I intend to mend. Darren has inspired me to do this work, an idea that has been bouncing around in my head for ages, ever since I read through "The Best of Both Worlds."

This fic is for Edge, and anyone else who has ever asked the question "what if?" A story celebrating possibilities and at the same time, differences, for indeed, the storyline will be inherently different with a seventeen- year-old loner with cold emotions as the lead instead of a twenty-one-year- old confused warrior who knows nothing about his past but lies.

There will be differences in this retelling and the stories of both games, but that is part of the magic, I believe. Some of Final Fantasy VII's characters will be returning and appearing throughout the game, as, despite the brilliance of FFVIII, it doesn't have enough playable characters in the proper roles, and some of FFVII's characters are priceless and irreplacable. The general plotline of FFVII and the characters of FFVIII will be preserved, and I will do my damndest to keep the spirit of both games alive and vibrant throught this fanfic, maintaining both the dark, yet tragically hopeful tale of FFVII and the beautiful tale of love and rivalry of FFVIII. Some characters are different, and the exact storylines are impossible to completely mimic (some events will, obviously, have occurred at different times) but I will try to remain faithful to both fans of FFVII and FFVIII. However, make no mistake; there will be some changes in FFVII's progression of events, though the storyline will follow the FFVII progression fairly closely.

Note that if you've read my FFVIII novelization, "The Gunblade Saga," then this intro will be very familiar, but will have some changes. Some aspects of "The Gunblade Saga" will find their way into this work as well in the first few chapters. The storyline will bear some similarities to Daz's work at first, but will steadily divert from what he wrote in what occurs and who fills in what roles. Trust me when I say that it will all work out in the end.

So, without further ado, I present to you an answer to that great, elusive question: What if?

_Standard Issue Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and VIII are the property of Squaresoft. All characters, locations, and concepts except for original creations belong to them._

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Bittersweet Synthesis: Two Fantasies, Fused Into One Epic Tale

Book One: Reunion

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_Prologue: Scars_

"I'll be here . . ."

"Why?"

"I'll be 'waiting' here."

"For what?"

"I'll be waiting . . . for you . . . so . . . if you come here . . . you'll find me.

"I promise."

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Sparks flew as the two blades intersected, the slender, black-bladed Hyperion being turned aside by the parry of the heavier, silver blade of the Revolver. Their wielders backed off slightly, eyeing each other with deadly intensity.

A cold wind rippled through their battlefield, playing with one's long coat and the other's long hair. They stood atop a roof, towering over the streets below, which were filled with fast-moving cars and pedestrians moving with purpose. The cityscape stretched around them, tall skyscrapers, dreary apartment complexes, and homes dwarfed by the mighty surroundings. Pollution-filled skies stretching above them, creating a drab brown pall over the city. Stars that managed to shine through the pollution glinted above the two warriors, and to the east, just beyond the distant mountains, a sliver of silvery light heralded the sun's future rise on this day. Lights blazed in the city's structures, filling the skyline with burning yellow lights, like fireflies frozen in the night by dirty brown ice. The scents of gasoline and the faint odor of leaking Mako floated along with that cold breeze.

"Not bad," said Hyperion's wielder with a smirk. He was tall, over six feet, with short, slicked-back blonde hair, except for a small lock that hung stylishly down over his face. He possessed a regal bearing, like some ancient knight from ages hence, that belied his seventeen years. He was clad in a long white trenchcoat, immaculate and spotless, emblazoned with blood-red sword-crosses on the sleeves. Underneath his white coat he wore a sleeveless blue vest, also featuring a cross, this one sliver. His black pants matched his boots and gloves, and around his throat hung a silver necklace. The blonde warrior arced his head back slightly, his shimmering blue eyes regarding his foe with a combination of respect and determination. He raised his blade up again, pointing it at his foe and putting his right foot forward, his free left hand held out to the side, a modified fencing pose.

His foe stood ten feet away, and also regarded the blonde man with the same determined, respectful expression, his eyes faintly glowing a deep blue as well. He was much shorter, a couple of inches above five and a half feet tall, with long, messy brown hair, hanging down around his face, a few strands in his eyes. He was only a year behind his opponent in age. He wore a short black leather jacket with thick, soft white fur around the collar, underneath which there was a plain white muscle shirt. He wore a trio of belts, one around his waist, the other two lower down, crossing diagonally over his groin. One held several small pouches, for items and equipment. The other seemed to be like a combination of a swordbelt and gunbelt, featuring a hybrid of a holster and a scabbard. The hybrid weapon holder was angled forward, as if its weapon was to be drawn like a sword, yet was shaped like a gun's holster, except it was longer, like a sword's sheath. Around the man's right leg was a trio of small bandoleers, each containing many small cylinders, like ammunition for a revolver. Like his foe, this man had black pants, though these were leather. Also, like his foe, his boots and gloves matched his pants. Around his neck was a chain, leading down to a crafted lion's head at the end.

The two opponents stood still for a few seconds, each watching the other, waiting for their foe to make the first move.

They broke as one, both advancing, blades clashing with the solid ring of metal on metal. Hyperion's wielder came across in a slash, to which the Revolver rose to block. Hyperion deftly rose over the blocking blade and knocked it down. Even as the Revolver's wielder began to bring his weapon back up, Hyperion weaved underneath the blade and slammed up. The Revolver, already with the momentum of rising up, went flying high out of its wielder's hands at the strike. The weapon spiraled up into the air, turning end over end. Its wielder quickly leaped back out of the blonde man's range, but his foe didn't advance. He simply stood there, Hyperion at his side, as he waited for the Revolver to drop back down.

"You need to learn to tighten your grip," he remarked to his foe with a superior smirk. The brown-haired man took a step to the side, observing the Revolver and where it would land. The weapon reached the apex of its flight and came down, end over end. It drove down into the rooftop, standing straight, handle up. The chain on the end clinked slightly as it waved back and forth.

The brown haired man glanced back up at his foe and then reached down for his weapon. His hands closed around the custom-made grip, and with one deft movement he wrenched the unique hybrid weapon out of the ceramic roof.

The Revolver was a gunblade, a strange and exotic crossbreed of gun and sword. The Revolver, as its name would suggest, had the handle of a six- shooter magnum. Where the barrel would be on a magnum, however, there was instead a long, broad blade, marked with an engraving of a crouching lion, with powerful wings sprouting from its back. The blade tapered until the last few inches, where the tip was shaped like the end of a scimitar, the curved edge excellent for slicing, yet straight enough for a powerful thrust. On the end of the handle of the Revolver was a short chain, at the end of which was a small sliver lion's head.

Drawing the Revolver and feeling the solid weight of the gunblade in his hands, its wielder turned to his foe. Hyperion still waited by his side, the smug smirk still plastered on his face as he waited for the duel to resume. Hyperion, like the Revolver, was a gunblade, although this weapon had the handle of handgun as opposed to a magnum revolver. Hyperion was long and slender, like a fencing blade or saber, and was straight, with a shining, silver edge.

"Come on, let's get this over with," the blonde man said. The brown- haired man nodded, then raised the Revolver and charged. The blonde warrior grinned and his own weapon rose to point at his foe.

The two dueled ferociously, blades clanging and scraping in the cold, polluted air. Hyperion and Revolver met repeatedly, sparks rising and falling at each intersection. Hyperion's wielder backed away quickly, and came back in, pulling a dazzlingly fast spin. Hyperion came around fast and hard, aided by the momentum of the spin, but was met by the Revolver. The Revolver came in behind the slash, striking at Hyperion's blonde wielder, but the man spun back and around, away from the slash. Hyperion came out of the spin striking down on the Revolver, knocking it down and away. The Revolver's wielder came back in, his gunblade slicing down at the blonde man, who stepped forward and unexpectedly ducked under the blow, ending up behind the Revolver's brown-haired wielder. The brown-haired man spun around quickly to face his opponent, who stood calmly at the edge of the roof. He held Hyperion straight up at shoulder level, smirked again, and then raised his left hand, beckoning with his fingers.

Revolver's wielder accepted the offer to come on. He charged, only to see Hyperion come down from its perch by the blonde man's shoulder and thrust out. The brown-haired warrior ducked aside from the first thrust and sent the Revolver across to prevent a slash down into his skull, then blocked a follow-up thrust, and then a third thrust. The Revolver came overhead in a cleaving stroke, only to be met by Hyperion. The blonde warrior bent his knees slightly at the blow, absorbing the power behind that strike, but didn't fall. He smiled as he pushed up and forward, forcing his brown-haired opponent off.

"Good," the blonde warrior said. "This is fun." The smirk on his face and a dangerous glint in his eyes told the brown-haired warrior that despite the "fun" his foe was having, he did not at all consider it to be a game.

"Well, are you just going to stand there!" Hyperion's wielder shouted. "Come on!"

Revolver responded to the challenge with an overhead cleave, to which Hyperion blocked. The blonde-haired warrior disengaged his blade from the Revolver, then smacked the weapon across into the Revolver, forcing the other gunblade aside. The brown-haired warrior backed away as Hyperion came up in a rising slash, and then another rising strike, both aimed for his head.

The brown-haired warrior came right back in after dodging the slashes, his gunblade swinging in rapid succession. The first swing missed as the blonde fighter backed away, but the following slice didn't. Hyperion swung up vertically to block the slice, its wielder putting his free hand across the gunblade's flat side to help absorb the shock of the hit, and the subsequent trio of strikes that shuddered his weapon. A sixth slash came in, but he parried it aside, and followed up the parry with a slash that forced his foe back.

"Enough of this bullshit!" Hyperion's wielder hissed as his enemy backed away. "Time to end this."

Revolver's wielder came back in again, gunblade behind him and ready for another powerful slash.

"Dodge this!" Hyperion's wielder shouted as his hand shot forward. Beneath his sleeve, there was a faint flare of green, and a ball of fire formed in his open palm. The brown-haired warrior barely had any time to respond before the magic spell went off, the incandescent ball of flame erupting from his foe's hand. He brought the Revolver up in time to absorb the brunt of the magic attack, but was hurled back onto his rear by the shock of the blast.

Shit, Revolver's wielder thought. He had materia! He should have seen that coming . . . Even as this thought went through his mind, training kicked in, telling him to get up and on his feet before his opponent took advantage of the moment of weakness. The brown-haired warrior began to rise, only to see his foe towering above him, Hyperion raised high.

A curse sounded in his mind as he saw the look of insane glee in his foe's shining eyes.

Then, Hyperion slashed down across the warrior's face. Pain erupted along a line running from his forehead down to the left side of his nose. Blood streamed out of the wound and stained the ground. Droplets of the red liquid flowed into his left eye, blinding him there.

The warrior turned his attention back up to his blonde enemy, who stood still, smiling. Rage twisted its way onto the brown-haired warrior's features, and he rose suddenly, the blood-stained eye shining strangely, blue through the thick red liquid. His fingers tightened around the gunblade's handle, and then he stood straight. The blade of his weapon dragged along the rooftop, kicking up sparks and shards of ceramic, and then the weapon rose up into his opponent's surprised and satisfyingly shocked face, slicing the man from the right side of his nose all the way up to the left side of his forehead. Blood spurted forth, and the brown- haired warrior stumbled back, looking at his stunned, bloodied opponent.

Then, his world began to go hazy, and darkness engulfed the Revolver's wielder as he fell back to the roof. His gunblade clattered down beside him, the reverberation of metal on ceramic being the last sound he heard before he blacked out.

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Yes, many of you may notice that this intro is remarkably similar the The Gunblade Saga's introduction. (except, of course, it was placed in Midgar) It seemed the best way to introduce the storyline, after all. And since it isn't exactly new, I've also posted the actual first chapter at the same time.

Before anyone comments, I know Seifer is eighteen and Squall seventeen. I intentionally made them both a year younger. It matters to the plotline, more than you likely realize.

Also, if anyone's already seen this and wonder why it was reposted...well, 's really buggy, and this wasn't showing up on the first page of the FFVIII page, which was really bothering me. So I reposted it, and hopefully it'll show up this time.


	2. Enter AVALANCHE

Chapter One: Enter AVALANCHE  
  
Green embers floated lazily in the air as she crouched in front of he conduit. She reached out and touched one of the tiny motes of light, absorbing the green energy into her hand. She frowned as the Mako flowed into her, and she caught a momentary jolt of ideas and emotions, jumbled and confused.  
  
She shook her head and stood up, leaving the damaged conduit and the leaking Mako behind. Most people would avoid leaking Mako because of the danger inherent with the substance, but she didn't. She wasn't afraid of the Mako, though its presence saddened her as she felt the pain and suffering inflicted by the "miracle of modern science." It was this substance that had given birth to her city.  
  
She stepped out of the alley, a basket of flowers hanging idly from her left hand, and looked up and down the street. As always, this section of Midgar was lit by yellow lamps and blazing lights. People meandered along the sidewalks of the main streets, and cars drove past, moving through the streets with a whiff of noxious gasoline trailing in their wake.  
  
From where she stood, she couldn't see much of the city, just the next row of apartment buildings in Sector Eight. They stretched up into the night, like brown teeth, stained with pollution from the nearby industrial factories. The city of Midgar was the home of the headquarters of Shinra Inc., the worldwide industrial conglomerate that effectively ruled the world. Only the far-off land of Wutai had ever resisted Shinra's control, and that just barely.  
  
The corporation was the pinnacle of corruption and the worship of money, a powerful, faceless monstrosity whose nest further exemplified these sordid ideals. That was what Midgar was: the product of aggressive expansion and the rape of both the natural world and mankind, raised on the backs of the poor and oppressed and fueled by the energies of the planet itself. It was Shinra's cancerous crown, the largest city in the world, where all their power was centered and from which their power had extended to encompass the world. It was huge, awe-inspiring, and at the same time, an abomination.  
  
But for her, it was also home.  
  
She stepped out onto the sidewalk and walked down the noisy street toward the topside Sector Two train station. However, she paused, listening, for over the din of the city street, she thought she faintly heard the sound of conflict, of distant sirens sounding near the border between Sector One and Sector Eight.  
  
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A quartet Shinra guards were on duty outside to Sector One Mako Reactor train station, their weapons slung over shoulders that slumped from long days of boredom. That was understandable in the military, as soldiers spent most of their time with nothing to do, except for that rare moment in which they would have to act. That moment, however, came so rarely that many soldiers didn't realize it was coming until they were already dead.  
  
When the #20 Train squealed in the middle of the night, unexpectedly, the guards looked up, somewhat surprised but hardly alarmed. The men, military police trained in security protocols, approached the unannounced train, though only one of them bothered to draw his weapon, a heavy assault rifle. He glanced to his comrades, though he didn't see their faces behind the blue helmets with the tinted visors across their faces.  
  
One of the soldiers, the ranking officer, stepped toward the engine, looking for the engineer driving, but paused, surprised to see no one in the engine car. He turned back, but at that moment, the instant that he and his fellows needed to act was suddenly and unexpectedly thrust upon them.  
  
The sliding doors of one of the train cars slid open, and two men, barely out of their teens, stood in the opening, brandishing sub- machineguns. Their weapons blazed, and a barrage of metal slugs tore into the two MPs unfortunate enough to be standing in their line of fire. Both men dropped, bleeding from their ripped torsos, blood staining their blue uniforms.  
  
The ranking soldier shouted something and took a step forward, hands going for his rifle, when a figure from inside the engine car suddenly moved out of her hiding spot. A pair of bladed sai slid out of belt sheaths, and she dropped down silently from the engine car even as the lead soldier was reacting to his comrades' deaths. One of the sai rose up, and she flipped it over to grasp the weapon by its tip. A flick of her wrist sent the bladed sai into the back of the soldier's neck, and he stopped in mid-motion, hands grasping at the weapon embedded in his body. The Shinra soldier then fell forward, dead before he could grip the weapon.  
  
The last soldier, the only one who had drawn his weapon, raised his rifle toward the two men inside the train, when a shadow eclipsed him. He looked up in time to catch a descending foot in the visor that laid him out flat. The man that foot belonged to, a blonde teenager with a frightening lightning tattoo across his face, looked up and scanned the station, even as the fifth and final member of the assault team dropped from the train, checking their six to ensure there were no other threats.  
  
"Move out!" Zell Dincht, the martial artist and team leader, shouted, and the two men and the woman nodded. Zell then turned back to the last team member, and waved for him. The scarred man nodded, and followed Zell as the other three team members ran ahead, ducking through an alleyway that would lead to the gates of the Mako reactor complex.  
  
The fifth man, a short, black-clad figure with long, messy brown hair, suddenly stopped near a door. Zell glanced back, confused and about to shout for the man to follow, when the door to the inside of the station burst open, and a trio of Shinra guards leaped out. The blue-clad military police were brandishing rifles and turning to aim them at Zell, when the black-clad man's weapon rose. The gunblade known as the Revolver sliced up into the back of one guard's neck, cleanly severing the soldier's head. He then chopped down, the gunblade cleaving through the second soldier's back. He screamed in pain, and the third guard, just becoming aware of the unexpected threat from behind them, found his rifle batted aside as Zell entered the fray. The rifle was knocked out of line, and in that moment of vulnerability, the metal knuckles on Zell's gloves smashed repeatedly into the soldier's faceplate. The MP hit the floor hard, quite unconscious.  
  
"Nice moves," Zell said to the Revolver's wielder. "Glad to know I made a good investment." The black-clad man said nothing, instead running on. Zell followed him into the alley, and the pair weaved their way through the twisting ways between buildings. They leaped over another dead Shinra fire team, who were ripped apart by a combination of bullets and quick, lethal slashes of slender blades, obviously the work of the rest of the team.  
  
"Sorry we're late," Zell called as they rounded a corner, the rest of the assault team coming into sight. The two men crouched with rifles ready, while the woman' hands were buried in the wiring of the Mako reactor's gate control system. "Ran into some Shinra trouble."  
  
"Nothing serious, sir?" asked one of the men, clad in a yellow jacket, brown pants, and a blue watchcap. His name was Watts, and he was the most timid member of the assault team.  
  
"Nah," Zell replied waving his hand dismissively. He hooked a finger over his shoulder. "You should have seen this guy in action! Snuck right up on them and killed two before they could twitch!"  
  
"Wasn't he a SeeD?" the second man, a dark-haired fellow named Zone, asked. The black-clad man nodded wordlessly.  
  
"SeeD's with Shinra, aren't they, sir?" Watts asked, but Zell shook his head.  
  
"Not this one anymore," he explained. "He cost a big wad of gil, but it was worth getting him for this operation."  
  
"Nice to meet you," Zone replied. "I didn't catch your name at the briefing."  
  
"Squall," Squall Leonhart responded with another nod. He turned to Zell. "How long will this take? They'll be reacting within a few minutes."  
  
"Just another second," the woman replied, shaking her head. She was named Xu, and was clad in a light gray jacket and dark pants, a bandana wrapped around her head, just below her dark brown hairline.  
  
"Was this guy really a SeeD?" Zone asked, not immediately impressed by the small, unimpressive figure Squall cut. Zone then looked up, and stopped, noticing Squall's blue eyes, which shimmered with an unnatural, glowing light. That was all the answer Zone needed.  
  
"Another second," Xu added. "And . . . there!"  
  
The solid metal gate leading deeper into the Mako reactor clicked once as the hydraulic locks were opened, and then slid open. The team quickly moved in, Zell and Squall taking the lead. They moved through the complex swiftly, ducking down twisting pathways between cramped buildings, their route lit by burning lamps and neon signs. No guards rushed out to greet them, and no civilian workers emerged from any of the myriad of buildings outside the reactor itself.  
  
Squall paused briefly at one point, looking up through the narrow space between two buildings, at the towering structure above. Sector One's Mako reactor loomed above them like a solid steel monolith, an impregnable titan emblazoned with the Shinra logo on the side. Green steam floated lazily out of the top of the structure.  
  
Squall shook away the memories associated with another reactor he had been to before, and rushed on. He had a job to do, which involved striking the vulnerable heart of this invincible behemoth.  
  
Soon, they passed beyond the outer structures of the complex and came into sight of a steel bridge spanning a deep chasm. The bridge connected the outer complex with the reactor itself, and also connected to a secondary access point that was sealed off - for the moment.  
  
The team stepped out onto the bridge itself, and Zell whistled, awed by the massive structure of the Mako reactor. Squall, however, looked down, as the bridge overlooked the slums of Midgar far below. Squall saw thousands of pinpricks of light, those of the citizens of Midgar who were forced to live below the city's upper plate, in the polluted wastelands of Midgar's slums at ground level. Below, he could also see the Mako reactor descend all the way to the surface, the tower that supported Midgar's power supply burying deep into the earth's surface.  
  
"Sweet Hyne this thing is huge!" Zell shouted, looking up at the massive shape towering above and descending far below. However, despite any awe Zell possessed, he also viewed the massive reactor as a monument to corporate greed, and he knew precisely what to do with such monuments.  
  
"Zone, Watts, open up our back door," Zell called, pointing toward the sealed rear entrance. "We've got to blow this joint." With that, Zell led the team across the bridge, onto the branching span of the metal structure that led into the Mako reactor. Squall and Xu followed him into the gaping doorway, and into the heart of the beast.  
  
Through the outer doorway the trio entered a long, blank hallway, periodically marked by doors and ladders leading to ventilation shafts and maintenance access ways. They ignored them, bounding down a short flight of stairs and through a set of double doors. A quick turn to the right took them down another hallway.  
  
"Access to the elevators should be on the second set of doors on the right," Zell reminded the party, and Xu and Squall nodded. They were even then approaching the first set of double doors, Xu running ahead to reach the second set first. Every second mattered.  
  
Xu got two steps past the doors when they burst open, and an entire squad of Shinra military police rushed out. Both Zell and the police were surprised by the sudden encounter, but Squall, ever alert and senses primed, reacted with lightning speed. His gunblade leaped up in a cleave that sliced through the chest of one man, dropping him with an accompanying fountain of blood, then flashed across, the deadly edge taking the throat of another soldier.  
  
Zell crashed heavily into one Shinra guard, knocking the man down. Zell fell over him, but reacted in midair, planting both hands on the floor as he fell and somersaulting forward to land lightly on his feet. The brawler spun toward the Shinra forces, and twisted aside as one man attempted to rifle-butt him. Zell looped an arm around the man's right arm and pulled out, stretching the arm to full extension, then smashed the soldier's elbow with his free hand, formed into a fist. Before the man even screamed in pain, Zell shoved him forward into the squad of Shinra soldiers, bowling over two more.  
  
Xu had spun back to the battle, but Zell looked over his shoulder and spotted her. He waved an arm, indicating for her to run on, and then his fists weaved, deflecting another rifle butt and smashing that soldier's faceplate in.  
  
"Go on! We'll take out the trash!" Zell shouted, throwing himself to the side as another soldier leveled his rifle at the brawler. Bullets pursued Zell as he scrambled to the side, and leaped toward one of the walls. The martial artist hit the wall running, planting his feet on it and taking two steps forward, seemingly defying gravity, before kicking off. The Shinra soldier tried tracking him, but the unexpected maneuver threw his aim off just long enough for Zell to flip over in midair and plant a devastating double kick into the man's chest and face. The soldier went flying away into unconsciousness. Zell spun on the two men he had dropped, and a quick barrage of jabs and hooks laid them out flat even as they were rising.  
  
Squall stepped forward, closing with the last pair of Shinra soldiers. One took a step back, raising his rifle to fire at Squall, while the other actually rushed forward, reaching to his belt and tearing out a tonfa. The soldier swept the tonfa across, the club aimed for Squall's head, but it never reached his skull. The Revolver weaved into the tonfa's path, deflecting the club, and then the gunblade chopped down, biting into the soldier's chest before he'd even been aware of the parry.  
  
Squall spun around, tossing the body with a roundhouse kick that hurled the dying soldier into his comrade. The last soldier was knocked off his feet by the macabre missile, and landed on his back. The soldier began to rise when a foot smashed into the side of his head, Squall's boot knocking him out cold.  
  
"SeeD through and through," Zell commented, seeing how Squall had easily dispatched his foes. The ex-SeeD said nothing and ran past Zell, who quickly followed.  
  
In the time it had taken Zell and Squall to deal with the Shinra soldiers, Xu had already reached the door and wired it open. They rushed through the next anteroom, where they found an elevator waiting to take them deeper into the complex. The trio boarded the elevator and Xu punched the button for the lowest levels. Squall leaned against the wall opposite the entrance, waiting through the long process of descending into the bowels of the reactor.  
  
"You know why we're doing this, right?" Zell asked. Squall glanced up, realizing the question was aimed at him. He said nothing, letting Zell explain. Squall had been told nothing about their intentions at the short briefing before they'd hijacked the train, just what was expected of him.  
  
"These Mako reactors are sucking all the energy out of the planet," Zell explained, pointing to the floor of the elevator. "You know how all the land around Midgar is empty and barren, right?" Squall nodded. "That's because all the energy's been sucked up, little by little, by these reactors. If we don't stop Shinra, the whole planet's going to die."  
  
"Not my problem," Squall responded nonchalantly.  
  
"The planet's dying!" Zell repeated, but Squall shrugged.  
  
"Whatever," he replied. "Like I said, it's not my problem. All I care about it blowing this place before the Roboguards arrive. That's what you hired me for, right?"  
  
Zell growled and turned around, punching the air a few times to let off steam. Xu glanced back and forth between them, but said nothing. After another minute or so, the elevator came to a stop. The trio stepped out onto a rarely used maintenance access way.  
  
"Damn, look at that," Zell commented on the view. Squall nodded, understanding the source of Zell's amazement. They were standing on a narrow access passage overlooking a massive pool of Mako energy about two hundred feet below. The raw, unrefined energy glowed a soft green and blue light. All throughout the wide chamber, machinery could be heard thrumming and operating smoothly, sedately, as if the havoc that was being wreaked above could not touch this region.  
  
Dozens, in fact hundreds, of pipes spanned the massive, circular chamber, which seemed to stretch almost five to six hundred feet across. A thick cylinder shot up through the far wall, housing the core of the Mako absorbing and processing machinery. Every pipe featured railings and ladders, allowing maintenence personnel easy access to pretty much any point in the chamber.  
  
Squall scanned the room, and spotted a bridge reaching from their edge of the chamber to the far side. He followed the ladder leading up from the bridge, and nodded as he saw it intersect with a pipe nearby, one they could easily reach. Squall tapped Zell on the shoulder and pointed to the bridge.  
  
"There's a ventilation shaft where that bridge meets the far wall," Squall shouted, in order to be heard over the din of the operating machines. "We'll put the bomb in there. It should ignite the stored Mako energy and blow this entire reactor apart."  
  
"Good thinking!" Zell replied. He turned to Xu. "Keep the way open for us, we shouldn't be long." Xu nodded, and Zell and Squall quickly moved out, scrambling across pipes and down ladders, until they reached the ladder leading down to the bridge.  
  
Squall led the way, taking the bomb they would be using from Zell. It was a moderately powered weapon, suited for destroying something armored, like a military vehicle, but if it was set in the Mako, it would be like putting a detonating cap in a mound of explosive material, igniting a far greater explosion. He ran across the bridge, ignoring the shimmering Mako just fifty feet below his position. Normally, most maintenance personnel would come down here with protective gear, but Squall needed none, and neither he nor Zell would be around long enough to worry about Mako poisoning.  
  
For an instant, Squall recalled another reactor he had visited, which had been more than just a reactor, but he brushed aside the memory, and instead crouched near the ventilation shaft at the wall. He armed the bomb and set it for ten minutes, then opened the shaft.  
  
Squall jerked as an alarm erupted from nowhere, the klaxon sounding over the machinery.  
  
"The shaft has an alarm on it!" Zell shouted, scanning the wide chamber for any threats. Squall quickly turned back to the shaft, ignoring Zell's blatant statement of the obvious, and dropped the bomb inside. He glanced at his watch, and tapped a button on it, synchronizing its clock with that of the bomb. He then spun, drawing his weapon again, and joining Zell in his scan.  
Mere moments later, however, the scan became unnecessary, as they heard a powerful stomping sound somewhere above, like iron jackhammers pounding into metal. Both men looked up to see a massive, four-legged form clinging to the ceiling somewhere far above. Even as they spotted the massive machine, it detached itself from the roof of the underground chamber, and dropped several hundred feet to land on the bridge, right in front of Squall and Zell. With a thunderous, mechanical piston-like stomping sound, its legs spread out, balancing the heavy weight of the machine. The weapon turned its attention towards the intruders, as if sizing them up.  
  
For a moment, no one moved. Squall had heard of a weapon like this, code-named X-ATM092. It was huge, twice Squall or Zell's height, and as wide as it was tall. It had a long, rectangular body, supported on four large, cylindrical legs, spread out like the legs of a spider, with sharp, clawed tips. It was painted matte black, excepting bluish designs on its legs, red markings across its body, and the steel-gray grating on the front of the machine. Behind this grating, something glowed a dark red, a sensor perhaps. Whatever it was, it was looking directly at the cadets. A quartet of turbines in the back powered the machine, and a pair of black and gray metallic pinchers, like those of a scorpion, waved around like that of a real scorpion just in front of the gray grating of its "head." Scrawled on the weapon's side in crude, white paint were the words "Black Widow," positioned just above the familiar logo of Shinra Inc.  
  
"The hell?" Zell growled, never having seen anything like this weapon. Squall, on the other hand, knew all too well about the dangers a weapon from Shinra's "X-ATM" series could present. Immediately, Squall focused, reaching deep into himself, and calling forth the energies within. He sensed the power within his body, the latent magical energies he stored within, and called them forth.  
  
A blast of crackling electrical energy erupted from Squall's outstretched left hand, and smashed into the towering robot before them. Electrical energy played along its grille, inflicting havoc on its forward sensor array. Zell glanced at Squall, and nodded at his expenditure of magic. The brawler raised one of his own fists, and from his wrist there was a green flare.  
  
X-ATM092 rushed forward, shaking off the effects of Squall's magic spell, and raised its pinchers in an effort to grab and slice the intruders apart. The weapon's clawed feet punched through the solid steel of the bridge, bowing it inward, as it advanced.  
  
Electrical magic from Zell rippled forward, from his glowing metal glove, striking the Shinra war machine across its "face." X-ATM092 slowed, but only briefly, long enough to begin to recover from the second blast of magic, but in that instant, Squall leaped forward, his gunblade rising and coming across in a cleaving slash that tore into the robot's front right leg, at the joint. As the weapon bit in, there was an explosion, and suddenly X-ATM092's front right leg was blasted apart, the limb damaged by an explosive blast from Squall's weapon. The robot buckled forward, its limb no longer supporting its heavy weight. However, as it fell forward, the weapon's pinchers shot forward, trying to spear Squall where he stood.  
  
The ex-SeeD was too quick for that, however, and long before the pincher reached him, Squall was already ducking. His gunblade rose and shot across, the blade biting into the pincher's joint. Another explosion from his gunblade sheared the pincher cleanly off, the metal arm flying over Squall's head.  
  
Another blast of lightning struck the war machine, throwing it further off balance, and Squall leapt up onto the machine's "head." He ran forward along X-ATM092's back, and called up the magical energies once more, this time aiming for the turbines on the weapon's backside. Electrical energy flowed from Squall's hand, ripping into the turbines and overloading them. Two of them blew apart, and a third simply ceased operating. The fourth still pumped, however, and X-ATM092 tried rising.  
  
"Not so fast, you oversized toaster!" Zell roared, leaping into the fray. He came forward with a flying forward kick the smashed the machine's grille inward, crushing the sensor within. X-ATM092 thrashed, blinded by the shockingly powerful kick. Squall glanced behind him, surprised at Zell's power, but took advantage of the brawler's distraction to send a final spell into the turbines, spearing the lone operating unit with a blast of magic that turned it into slag. With the destruction of the last turbine, the weapon's movements slowed dramatically, and it settled to the bridge. Squall didn't wait to check on the machine. He knew all to well that they had no time to waste, and dropped off the weapon's back.  
  
"Zell, hurry!" Squall shouted as he ran toward the ladder, and the brawler nodded, hopping up over the machine and running after Squall.  
  
"How much time is left?" Zell asked, worried that their battle had taken too long.  
  
"Nine minutes," Squall called back, reaching the ladder. "Enough time to escape if we hurry."  
  
"Then what's wrong?" Zell asked as he reached the ladder. They could easily get to safety in nine minutes as long as nothing delayed them.  
  
"You don't want to be there when that machine gets back up," Squall replied, already halfway up the ladder.  
  
"Gets back up?" Zell echoed, matching Squall's frantic pace. "What do you mean, we trashed it!"  
  
"Shinra's X-ATM series includes built-in repair robots that automatically repair any damage," Squall replied. "We've got maybe a minute before it gets back up. And once it locks on to a target, it's going to keep going after it until either it or the target has been destroyed."  
  
"How do you know so much?" Zell asked, now climbing even more quickly up the ladder after Squall's bit of news.  
  
"I've had a run-in with one in the past," Squall said cryptically, and let the matter drop. He and Zell continued scaling the ladder to the top, and began running along the pipes to where Xu was waiting. Squall checked his watch and nodded grimly. They had eight minutes.  
  
--------------------  
  
Shinra computer technicians and programmers were quite skilled, and their programming capabilities were shown in their ability to program their army's military robot forces. They had even developed an advanced artificial intelligence program, which was still in its experimental stages . That AI program was capable of learning from its mistakes and adjusting for them, as well as developing new methods and solutions to a problem. Such an AI had yet to have been tested in the field, so the Shinra military had decided to put the program into use on a relatively minor task for the moment, guiding sentries in their Mako reactors, to determine its effectiveness. It had been installed along with a new round of upgrades in the "X-ATM" series, which also included redundant systems, new weaponry, and a sophisticated self-repair mechanism intended to delay intruders until reinforcements could arrive.  
  
Those engineers would not have been disappointed in X-ATM092's seemingly easy defeat at the hands of the two intruders; those engineers would have merely smiled at the terrorists who now thought they were safe and the weapon was wrecked. In fact, the weapon was far from it.  
  
Even as Squall and Zell fled, within X-ATM092 tiny robots, controlled by the central AI, swarmed over its overloaded and damaged electronics. Like a horde of frenzied mechanics, the tiny robots reassembled and repaired X-ATM092's wounds.  
  
Less than a minute after its defeat, X-ATM092, the Black Widow, rose anew, its scanners repaired, and marked its prey.  
  
--------------------  
  
Zell led the way onto a ladder, scrambling up, when Squall heard the metal jackhammer sound from far below over the klaxons and machinery. The ex-SeeD looked down and spotted X-ATM092 standing, dozens of tiny repair robots still skittering across its hull as it turned its "head" toward them. The red sensor glowed frighteningly once more as it spotted them, and hunkered down low to the bridge.  
  
"Zell, look out!" Squall warned as he scaled the ladder. The brawler looked down in time to see the huge spider-like robot leap into the air, its angle taking the weapon up toward the wall near the pipes they were climbing. The robot didn't make it all the way up to that point, but it met the wall about fifteen below their position. Its clawed legs dug deeply into the concrete walls of the chamber, and it began hauling itself up.  
  
Zell and Squall moved even faster than before, and finished scaling the ladder before the war machine had taken two steps. The robot, however, was already close enough, Squall knew, and he reached forward and pulled Zell down.  
  
A bolt of condensed energy ripped through the air above Zell, right where his head had been, and struck a blank spot on the wall some fifty feet away. The spot on the wall exploded as if it had been hit by an anti- tank rocket, and Zell did not want to think what it would have done to his cranium if Squall had not grabbed him.  
  
Squall looked back to the robot for an instant, to see another ball of energy forming directly beneath its sensor array. Then another ball, this one of fire, struck the robot's head from somewhere above.  
  
"Xu's covering us!" Zell exclaimed, and Squall nodded, looking up to where Xu was located even as a second fireball lanced down and struck the war machine. She was somewhere above, on a metal strut spanning the chamber, but Squall didn't know where she was until a green flare erupted faintly in that general region, and a third fireball shot down. Squall and Zell took advantage of her covering fire and continued climbing.  
  
X-ATM092 didn't take kindly to being interrupted like it had and pointed its head in Xu's general direction. The ball of energy reformed beneath the weapon's sensor array, the bright yellow light filling the air around the weapon, before it fired another bolt.the yellow energy lanced up into the strut and exploded, blasting a huge chunk of the metal apart.  
  
"Xu!" Zell shouted, looking at the place where she had seemingly vanished under X-ATM092's blast. However, his fears were unfounded, as he quickly spotted Xu, crawling along the strut, obviously trying to avoid drawing anymore fire from the war machine. X-ATM092 seemed content to leave her, and turned its head back around to face Squall and Zell.  
  
"Aim for the legs," Squall quickly told Zell, who looked up at the ex- SeeD. Squall pointed a hand down at the machine as energy began forming under its sensor array once more. Zell nodded and pointed one of his own gloved fists at the weapon, the knuckle flaring green again.  
  
"Now!" Squall ordered, and two bolts of lightning shot down at the war machine, each striking one of its front legs. The lightning shot through the robot, playing hell with X-ATM092's guidance and control systems. The machine stopped in place, and then its front legs detached from the wall. However, X-ATM092's rear legs were undamaged, and held on fast, even as the forward pair came loose and the weapon seemed to flip over strangely, its front end pointing down atthe Mako pool farbelow. The weapon stayed attached to the wall, though just barely.  
  
"Now the rear legs," Zell added, shifting his aim lower. Squall nodded, but pointed his left hand at Zell for an instant. Zell noticed the movement, and was briefly confused at squall's actions, which was only compounded when shining blue energy streamed from Zell's hand to Squall's. The brawler stared, not sure what had happened.  
  
"Quick, cast!" Squall shouted, now pointing his arm down at X-ATM092, even as it was raising its detached legs back to the wall. Zell shook his head, leaving the questions for less life-threatening situations, and focused. His fist glowed once more, and another pair of lightning bolts lanced out and struck the war machine rear legs. As with the forward legs, the electricity fried the electronics, and caused the rear legs to detach from the wall.  
  
With nothing anchoring it to the wall, X-ATM092 plummeted, falling down and smashing through the bridge far below to plunge into the untreated Mako pool, leaving the intruders with six minutes to spare.  
  
--------------------  
  
"What the hell was that?" Zell asked as the elevator began rising. They still had enough time, even with the battle against X-ATM092, to escape from the reactor. By Xu's estimate, they would be up on the escape level with a full minute to spare, and if they ran all the way they would be out quickly enough.  
  
"SeeD technique," Squall explained, crouching next to Xu. A piece of shrapnel from the explosion had gouged itself into her shin, and he was helping her bandage the wound. "It's how I can cast without materia."  
  
"You can use magic without materia?" Xu asked, surprised. She had heard of rumors of warriors who could use magic without the special orbs, but had never thought them to be true. It was like firing bullets without a gun. Materia was required for using magic.  
  
"One of the SeeD techniques," Squall repeated with a shrug. "The wound's not too bad, but you won't be running for a while."  
  
"How do you do it?" Zell asked, and Squall shrugged.  
  
"Its complicated, but I think anyone could pull it off with proper instruction," Squall explained. "It's a lot easier than ki manipulation, though."  
  
"You noticed, huh?" Zell asked, grinning. He pounded his chest proudly.  
  
"Only a SeeD or a student of Zangan's school could have hit with that power," Squall replied with another shrug as he stood up.  
  
"I'm not just a student of Zangan," Zell said proudly, tapping his chest. "Zangan's my-"  
  
The elevator rocked as a tremor shot through the shaft. Even before the lift stopped shaking, Squall had rushed to one side of the small room and opened a lower access panel. He looked down, then immediately stood.  
  
"Its back," he muttered, just before the other two occupants heard the familiar industrial pounding that heralded X-ATM092's approach. "Climbing the elevator shaft."  
  
"How?" Zell exclaimed, though somewhat impressed with how easily Squall handled the weapon's seemingly impossible return. "It was dunked in raw Mako!"  
  
"Mako only poisons living beings," Squall responded, glancing up to the sign above the elevator door, showing what level they were on. They were about ten floors below where they needed to go. "Robotic units aren't effected beyond getting a nice bath from the fluid . . . .  
  
"Zell, help me get up to the panel," Squall said, stepping across the elevator to a second access panel, this one in the ceiling. Zell nodded, and crouched below the panel. Squall stepped up on his shoulders, and the brawler lifted him easily. A second later, Squall had removed the access panel and climbed up onto the roof of the elevator car.  
  
"We need to get Xu up here," he said, and again, Zell nodded. Between Squall and Zell, they were easily able to get the wounded woman onto the rooftop. A second later, Zell leaped easily onto the roof, requiring no help. As soon as he arrived, the brawler saw that Squall was grasping onto the cable pulling the car up, and sizing the metal cable up.  
  
"Are you thinking what I think you are?" Zell asked, and Squall nodded.  
  
"Probably," the ex-SeeD said. "Drop back down inside the car and stop us just below the level we need to get off of." Zell nodded and dropped back down inside. A few moments later, the car stopped.  
  
"This car weighs easily over seven tons," Xu commented as Squall stepped over to her. "You're going to drop it, aren't you?" Squall nodded, and hooked an arm under her armpit. He helped her climb onto his back, and then began climbing even as Zell leaped back up through the hole. The brawler quickly joined them as Squall ascended to the same level where they'd originally entered the complex, and, holding onto the cable with his left hand, drew his gunblade. He thrust the blade into the gap between the outer elevator doors, and pulled the weapon's trigger.  
  
The explosion blasted the doors apart, and Squall spun around on the cable, moving Xu toward the opened doors. She stepped off his back and out into the anteroom beyond the doors, gingerly putting her weight on her torn leg. Squall followed, and Zell brought up the rear. As soon as Zell was out of the shaft, Squall turned back and swiped his gunblade across into the elevator's cable. There was another explosion from the unusual weapon, and the blast easily severed the cable. Immediately, the elevator car fell, plummeting down the shaft where it would easily smash the war machine flat. A couple of seconds later, as the trio turned to leave, they heard yet another tremendous explosion. Squall's eyes widened, and he spun toward Xu and lifted her onto his shoulders.  
  
Neither of the other members of the team understood for a brief moment, until they both recalled the powerful ray weapon X-ATM092 possessed. That explosion had simply been the weapon blasting the descending car out of its way.  
  
And with no car dropping onto the weapon, it meant there was nothing between the machine and them.  
  
The metallic stomping reverberated up the elevator shaft, like a foretelling of doom, and none of the trio waited for X-ATM092 to finish climbing. They ran, as fast as they could, out of the antechamber and down the hallway, bounding over the corpses of the guards Squall and Zell had slaughtered. Xu clung tightly to Squall's back, knowing she couldn't escape on her damaged leg.  
  
"We've got less than thirty seconds!" Zell shouted, checking his watch. Squall risked a glance at his own as they turned down the main corridor. The brawler was right, and now the countdown was down to twenty- seven seconds.  
  
Zell surged ahead, not because he wanted to get out first, but simply because he could move faster without being burdened by Xu on his back, and he could tell Zone and Watts to get the door open earlier. No doubt they had finished unsealing it and were waiting for the others' return, but if Zell could get to them ahead of time they could open the door before Squall arrived with Xu.  
  
Somewhere down the hallway, metal could be heard tearing apart. The X- ATM092 must have made its way to their level, judging by the sounds of walls being ripped apart by the huge war machine trying to fit through corridors too small for its bulk. The metal jackhammer sound of its advance could be heard all too clearly through solid metal walls that no one should have been able to hear the sound through under ordinary circumstances.  
  
Squall ticked down the seconds mentally as he ran, Xu bouncing over his shoulders. They had twenty-three seconds left, and it seemed that if X- ATM092 had its way, they had even less than that.  
  
Zell bounded ahead, dashing down the hall as fast as he could manage, which, considering the situation, was pretty damn fast. He bounded down the short staircase just before the entrance about five before Squall, barreling outside with a scream of "Open the door right the hell now!" Zone and Watts jumped on it even before Zell was finished, opening the rear entrance and diving through. They knew about the estimated power of the coming detonation, and they didn't want to be anywhere nearby without a very solid wall in the way.  
  
Squall hoofed his way through the hallway, counting down the seconds, seconds that passed by far too quickly. Metal continued ripping and tearing behind him as the relentless machine continued the chase, smashing through intervening walls with almost frightening ease. By the time he reached the door leading out of the reactor itself, less than fifteen seconds remained before the coming explosion.  
  
Even as he charged out of the door, Xu still on his back, the final intervening wall was torn down, and X-ATM092 finally came into sight of its prey. The weapon had already charged up its energy cannon in preparation, and as soon as Squall and Xu came into view, it fired.  
  
Squall knew as soon as he heard the last wall come crashing down that the weapon would fire, and he threw himself to the side, almost off the bridge. The bolt ripped past Squall, barely missing him and Xu, the heat scorching their backs.  
  
X-ATM092 charged forward, smashing through the doorway and chasing after Squall as he continued to run toward the door where Zell, Zone, and Watts waited with thirteen seconds remaining, just enough time. The weapon saw Squall continue to run, and understood his destination, and furthermore, knew that its target would manage to escape before it could catch up. X-ATM092's legs gathered beneath it like a cat ready to pounce, and it leaped clear over Squall to land ahead of him, where the bridge branched off.  
  
Squall realized he was trapped, but didn't stop running. X-ATM092 took a step forward, raising its pinchers and preparing to end the chase with a quick stab.  
  
Nine seconds remained.  
  
The pinchers rose as high as they could, and the weapon took one final step, almost putting Squall and Xu into range. Clinging to Squall's back, Xu clutched the ex-SeeD tighter and closed her eyes.  
  
Eight seconds remained, and the pinchers descended. They struck, and hit only metal.  
  
Squall was airborne, having leaped to the right, his feet propelling him across the gap between the branching segments of the bridge, toward the unsealed door where the remainder of the strike team watched in awe. For Squall's leap was incredible, a jump that was carrying him and Xu across what was easily fifty feet of empty air.  
  
Squall's feet connected with the metal of the bridge with a resounding clang, and he turned and ran straight for the unsealed door, with only five seconds remaining.  
  
X-ATM092 realized its error even as the pinchers were digging in, and its energy weapon began charging again. It turned, the ball forming beneath its sensors even as Squall dashed through the door with three seconds left.  
  
"Shut it! Shut it now!" Zell shouted, and Watts and Zone slammed the heavy, reinforced metal door down as a single second remained on the clock of the bomb deep within the reactor.  
  
X-ATM092 locked onto the door, and issued the fire command. The ball broke down, the energy gathering and projecting forward into an explosive blast of death that would breach the door and kill all five intruders behind it.  
  
-------------------  
  
Deep within the reactor, a small explosion detonated within the raw, unrefined pool of Mako energy. The small explosion set of a cataclysmic chain reaction as the Mako energy, the living lifeblood of the planet, stolen by Shinra, was turned into the very weapon that would destroy what the corporation had wrought.  
  
In the blink of an eye, every drop of Mako in the reactor became pure, unbridled energy that expanded outward, consuming walls, machinery, corpses, and those soldiers and robotic sentries unfortunate enough to still be inside the perimeter of the facility. White fires ripped up through the chamber, throughout the lower levels, up into the reactor core and through the control rooms and offices, consuming the destroyed elevator that Squall, Zell,and Xu had used, and continuing on.  
  
It tore through each level, consuming all in its path as it advanced, a wall of unstoppable fire that rose up to the level even with Midgar's upper plate and onward, exploding up and out of the top of the reactor and far into the night sky.  
  
Energy ripped out of the reactor, blasting through the halls and channeled out the torn door toward the bridge where X-ATM092 was firing its energy weapon at the intruders. In the blink of an eye, the weapon went from firing to on fire, the converted power of the stored Mako blasting into the war machine with incredibly destructive fury that interrupted its shot and saved all five intruders' lives.  
  
All of Midgar heard the resounding explosion, and everyone in Sectors One and Eight would tell of the shockwave from that blast, and the night that all of Midgar would know the name of the rebel terrorist organization that Zell Dincht had christened AVALANCHE.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------  
  
Obviously, if anyone's read Daz Shier's work, then this will sound a bit like an echo. Heh. Similarly, he used Zone, Watts, and Xu, as well as X- ATM092 in his work for this chapter. There's only so much I can do with this without copying from his work, but I do what I can. Trust me that, despite the initial similarities, this work will be different from Daz's, especially character placement. 


	3. Memories and Promises

Chapter 2: Memories and Promises  
  
"That should keep the planet going for a little longer," Zone said in the darkness.  
  
No one immediately responded, though Squall, standing at the back of the small group, shook his head. Yes, they had temporarily decreased the amount of energy that Shinra was draining, but the corporation could easily increase production at the other seven reactors around the city. Not to mention that at least four other major reactors existed outside the city itself, along with a number of minor ones. The operation had been an important first step, but only a first step for the rebels.  
  
Squall suddenly wondered why he actually cared. He had no real stake in this matter; he would die long before Shinra drained even a significant portion of the planet's Mako. So why did he care about their cause?  
  
Squall passed it off as curiosity and paid it no more heed. Besides, they had finally reached the access passage exit, and Xu was wiring some explosives to the sealed door. Watts stood over her with a small flashlight, while Zell and Zone each took an aerosol can and began spraying one of the tunnel walls.  
  
"What are you doing?" Squall asked, not remembering anything like this from the briefing.  
  
"Leaving our calling card," Zell replied, smiling. He held up another flashlight and began spraying some writing along the wall. Zone did the same thing on the opposite wall. "The Shinra guards will probably follow us through this tunnel after they get to the blast site. We've got a message for them."  
  
Squall watched as the brawler and Zone left their graffitti, and shook his head at the message they left on the tunnel walls. In bright red paint, Zell and Zone had left the message "Avalanche! Defenders of the Planet! Destroyers of Mako Energy! Shinra's greatest enemy!" While the message wasn't in and of itself funny, the fact that the duo had scrawled the spray paint in an extremely sloppy manner, not to mention they left a choice set of misspellings and a not-so-complimentary image of a raised middle finger beneath a smiley face, made the message look like something teenage punks had written. Squall did understand the reason behind the silliness of the message, as it would certainly befuddle Shinra's investigators as to the nature of the group.  
  
"Not bad, huh?" Zone asked, rather proud with how crudely he had written his message. "We've also got some of our part-timers pasting up posters around the top plate, so everyone will know about AVALANCHE."  
  
"Okay, it's done!" Xu called, and the entire group fell back several steps, Watts helping Xu to move back on her injured leg. The rebel raised a detonator and pressed the button, and in a roaring flash of fire, the door out of the access tunnel was blasted open. Squall and Zell were the first through, securing the area beyond, followed by Zone, with Xu being helped by Watts out of the tunnel.  
  
The area outside the sealed tunnel was little more than a disused, empty lot in a run-down section of Sector Eight's topside plate. No one was in sight, and only a single road led out of the lot, a small drive that curved around a building and disappeared into the cityscape. Zell nodded, turning back to his group.  
  
"Okay, the job's done, but we're not out of the woods yet," he stated, crossing his arms. "We'll need to split up and meet at the Sector Eight train station so we can get the hell out of here." Zell glanced at his watch. "The train leaves in about fifteen to twenty minutes, so be there!" Zell turned to Xu, concerned about her leg, but she just hook her head and patted the top of Watts' head.  
  
"Nothing unusual here, just a drunk girlfriend being escorted by her boyfriend," she explained, and Zell grinned. Watts seemed kind of embarrassed, but nodded. With that, the quartet of rebels, and their mercenary tag-along, dispersed, Zell bounding up a fire escape while Zone ducked into another alleyway. Watts and Xu struck a straight path down the road together, leaving Squall behind, who remained, soaking up the period of quiet and peace. After several long moments of enjoyable silence and solitude, Squall set out from the parking lot, taking a different alley from Zone. Very quickly, the ex-SeeD disappeared into the shadows of Sector Eight with an almost casual ease.  
  
Five minutes of wandering the alleys (and glaring off a pickpocket with a glowing blue stare that promised a world of pain) Squall emerged in the middle of a rubble-strewn plaza. Quite a few people were running around, or wandering aimlessly, confused and frightened by the titanic explosion from mere minutes before. Squall glanced around the area, and recognized the plaza. He recalled his memorized maps of Midgar and knew where to find the train station.  
  
The ex-SeeD shouldered his way through anyone who wandered into his path, quickly moving across the plaza to a street that would take him to the bridge overlooking the station. As he was walking, however, Squall paused, noticing a quartet of familiar blue uniforms moving purposefully into the plaza. Behind them were a lot more Shinra soldiers, many bearing the insignia of military police. Too many for Squall to even consider trying to fight or move past, even with his friends he hadn't needed back in the reactor. Squall mentally checked the back of his mind again, and confirmed they were still present, before turning away from the guards. Even now, the guards were forcefully pushing their way through the plaza, systematically rounding up citizens for inspection. Like the other members of Zell's bunch, Squall had a fake I.D. Xu had worked up, but he didn't trust it in the face of a scrutinizing MP. Not to mention if they had received any reports on Squall's unusual weapon of choice . . . .  
  
Squall bumped into someone, and glanced down at whoever it was, knowing before he'd even looked at her that by the force and direction of the impact that he'd knocked her down, and she was female.  
  
"Oops, sorry," she apologized, starting to stand up, raven black hair dropping to her shoulders, caramel strands running through the hair around her temples. She stood back up, and Squall found one of his hands dropping down to help the girl (and she did seem to be young, barely Squall's own age) to her feet.  
  
"Thank you," she began to say, looking up at Squall, but as their eyes met, both the ex-SeeD and the mysterious woman stopped moving, looking at each other for a heartbeat longer than either expected. This wasn't much of a surprise, considering the visuals both were getting.  
  
The girl's eyes were her most immediate feature, warm brown pools that sparkled with an inner light that reached into the depths of his soul, laying everything bare. Her face was slender, pale-skinned, with a delicate nose and equally fragile-seeming lips of a light pink shade. She wore a loose blue sleeveless duster over a black tank top and shorts, and light blue arm sleeves. Her eyes traced over Squall, reading his own slender features, long hair, and strangely glowing blue eyes.  
  
Her stare returned to his eyes, boring into them innocently, but with a gaze and empathy that immediately made the mercenary mentally recoil. He took a sudden step back, and looked up and around. Hie eyes momentarily settled on the girl's left hand, which held a small wicker basket full of . . . flowers?  
  
She noticed where Squall was looking, and smiled, understanding his confusion.  
  
"Flowers don't grow in Midgar," she commented, holding up the basket. "Want one? Only one gil." Squall shrugged, not being the type to enjoy flowers. Though he had to admit, he felt somewhat . . . nostalgic when looking down at the colorful plants, which seemed strange to him. After a moment of consideration, Squall shrugged again and reached into his pocket, taking out a single gil bill and handing the girl the paper currency. She smiled and placed one of her flowers in Squall's hand, then paused, looking over his shoulder.  
  
Squall risked a quick glance, to see the Shinra guards making their way across the plaza. Immediately, he spun back to the girl, opening his mouth.  
  
"I'm sorry, I have to go," she interrupted him, echoing what he'd been intending to say, and then she moved away, walking briskly across the plaza before Squall could say anything. He watched her go, intrigued, and looked down at the colorful flower she had given him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Squall considered what the chance meeting might have led to without the Shinra soldiers' intervention as he placed the small flower into one of his jacket pockets.  
  
That thought made Squall look back up as the group of soldiers continued moving through the crowd, frisking and checking citizens. The ex- SeeD knew he couldn't wait around, and began to move away, though not before one soldier noticed him.  
  
"Hey, you!" he called, moving through the crowd toward Squall, who continued on as if he had heard nothing. Somewhere within his jacket, however, Squall's left hand closed around an item in one of his pockets.  
  
"Stop right there," the soldier ordered, now only a step behind Squall. He did so, coming to a stop, and began to turn to face the blue- uniformed soldier, angling his right shoulder toward the man. The Shinra military policeman gestured for Squall to hold his hands out, and Squall began to raise his right arm as he turned. Suddenly, his right hand balled into a fist, index finger extended to point into the air.  
  
The soldier, Squall knew, would have his gaze momentarily turned toward the finger, and in the brief instant the distraction brought him, the ex-SeeD's left hand darted out, a small, balanced throwing knife spinning out from the hand and burying up to the hilt in the soldier's neck. The man gurgled incoherently, and fell to the pavement, his rifle clattering loudly to the stone. The sound of the weapon hitting the stones of the plaza alerted the remainder of the guards, and they looked up to the source of the disturbance.  
  
They saw the dead man, but Squall was already gone, dashing out of the plaza. One man did notice a black-clad figure darting around a corner, and called for the pursuit. Within moments a dozen or more Shinra soldiers were hot on Squall's tail.  
  
He ducked through a pair of alleys, wincing as one Shinra guard opened fire after the fugitive refused to heed his command to halt. Bullets smashed into the wall above Squall's head, but he ignored them and turned down another alley. Another Shinra guard shouted something behind him, though this seemed more of surprise than anything else, and Squall paused, momentarily confused.  
  
Squall found himself stopping and listening as he heard a distant pounding sound, and the shouts of more Shinra guards. He frowned, momentarily unsure of the source of the distant noise, until he heard what he imagined was the sound of a building being torn down with a battering ram, the noise only a short distance away. Then, as the crashing impact of the blasted building began to fade, Squall perceived another sound over the din, something he was all too familiar with.  
  
A sound like metal jackhammers.  
  
Squall turned and ran, dashing down the street. Mere seconds after he exited the alley, the wall exploded outward, and X-ATM092, bearing intense char marks across its fire-twisted black hull, burst out into the open, chasing down its original prey with all its horrible, unstoppable fury.  
  
The weapon was programmed to kill, and it followed that directive with brutal determination. It had survived the blast of roiling fire from the destruction of the Sector One reactor, and had been monitoring police reports as it had climbed back up Midgar's plate. Its repair functions were disabled and over half the weapon's systems were down, but the redundant computer and power cores kept the war mecha operational as it tracked down its target, only moving once it had received the radio reports that one of the intruders was being chased on foot. Now, it closed in on the kill that had eluded it in the reactor, pinchers raised as it threw aside any obstacles in its path.  
  
Squall dashed out of the alley, and found himself standing on a raised street in front of an apartment building. Not the one overlooking the train station, but one that did overlook the train tracks leading away from the station. Besides, now it was far too late for him to board the train anyway; it had departed five minutes ago, judging by his watch.  
  
X-ATM092 smashed through the alleyway, widening the route so it became almost a full-fledged street, its claws pounding as the weapon charged. Squall heard it behind him, and knew that he didn't have much time. He might stand a chance against it alone with his friends in the back of his mind, as he figured the repair function was disabled if the weapon was so badly damaged cosmetically. But, Shinra soldiers were doubtlessly behind the weapon, and even Squall couldn't take them all on.  
  
The pavement beneath Squall rumbled as he thought of a plan. For a moment, Squall thought the noise to be from X-ATM092, but the vibrations were constant and growing rapidly, the kind only a train made as it was passing through a tunnel. A daring plan formed in Squall's mind, and the voices in his head agreed, a faint red flare coming from beneath his jacket sleeve.  
  
Three seconds later, X-ATM092 crashed through the last interfering wall and closed on Squall, who stood calmly in its path, eyes closed, head bowed, as if he was prepared to accept his death. The war machine obliged the image, raising its pinchers for the kill as it charged.  
  
Then, rain fell on the battlefield as the skies around that section of Midgar sported gray storm clouds. From the clouded skies, a lightning bolt struck the pavement, shattering the stones. from the lightning blast emerged a spinning yellow entity, lights playing across its bird-like, featherless body.  
  
The creature was known as Queztocotl, the legendary spirit of lightning, thunder, and storms. It raised its eyeless, snake-like head, and turned its gaze on the charging X-ATM092. Lightning spewed forth from where its mouth should have been, enveloping the charging robot with tendrils of electrical energy, before a rising dome of lightning surrounded the mecha. From the top of this dome, a massive lightning bolt ripped down, blasting into X-ATM092 and utterly destroying its interior with a tremendous amount of electrical power. The turbines on the weapon's backside exploded, sparks flew from its body, stream and smoke escaped, and the forward sensor exploded in a shower of glass and red light.  
  
X-ATM092 took two steps forward before pitching onto its "face", smashing down into the pavement and throwing up huge stones and chunks of ceramic before finally laying still. The weapon sat still for a brief moment, then exploded into a tremendous fireball as the last of its engines lost integrity and detonated.  
  
The Shinra soldiers following the weapon slowed as they neared the street where the final confrontation had happened. They scanned the area, searching for the intruder, and saw no one. There was no way the intruder could have escaped down one of the side streets before they had gotten there, so where was he?  
  
Beneath the searching Shinra soldiers, the final train to the slums from Sector Eight raced past, a dark shape barely visible in the equally dark Midgar night as it crawled along the rooftop of the vehicle.  
  
Squall rose from his crawl and crouched as the train raced through the night, his body barely even moved by the powerful gusts of wind. In the back of his mind he silently thanked Queztocotl for coming to his aid once again, and the Guardian Force obliged, its materia faintly flaring a crimson light beneath Squall's left sleeve.  
  
-------------------  
  
The tone inside the rear cargo car of the train was quiet and somber. Watts was helping Xu with her bandage, checking the shrapnel cut and cleaning it, while Zone leaned against a wall, staring at the floor. Zell was the only one really moving, bobbing back and forth and throwing punches at an illusory opponent, working off some of the nervous energy that he always seemed to have when anxious.  
  
"Do you think Shinra killed Squall?" Watts asked as he reapplied the bandage to Xu's shin.  
  
"I dunno!" Zell snapped, launching a jab-jab-hook-snap kick combo. "But I think he might still be alive. You shoulda seen him in action!" Zell added, roundhouse-kicking his imaginary opponent.  
  
"You think he'll stay and fight with us?" Zone asked hopefully. Zell shrugged, not knowing.  
  
"Who the hell knows what's going on in that guy's mind?" Zell asked. "He's like a stone wall."  
  
There came a sound from above the cargo car, and the group looked up, surprised by the noise. Then, without warning, the train's outside door flew to the side, and a head with long, messy brown hair came into view from the top of the doorframe.  
  
"Squall!" came a general cry from around the car as the ex-SeeD grabbed the top of the doorframe and swung in, landing lightly on his feet. He turned back to the rest of the rebels.  
  
"Sorry for being late," he explained.  
  
"Late!" Zell exclaimed, shaking his head. "We were worried sick about you! Then you just pop in here like its nothing to be hanging around on top of a train like that?"  
  
Squall shrugged, not really concerned with how narrow his escape had really been. When one was accustomed to insane missions like those routinely handed to SeeD, these types of jobs became ordinary occurrences.  
  
"Its nothing special," Squall explained. "Besides, you were actually worried about me?"  
  
"Not really," Zell replied, put on the defensive by Squall's question. The brawler scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Just glad to see the guy who pulled our asses out of the fire is fine, that's all. Anyway! Let's move up front, I think its time to upgrade our accommodations." With that, the brawler bounded over a couple of crates.  
  
"Hey, Squall, man, that was amazing!" Zone said, clapping the ex-SeeD on the shoulder, something Squall didn't seem too happy about. "You did an insane job back there."  
  
Squall shrugged, the same motion throwing Zone's arm off - not rudely, but enough to show Squall wasn't immediately comfortable. Zone didn't object, just shrugged and hopped over the crate after Zell. Watts was following, helping Xu to move with one of his shoulders supporting her.  
  
"Great job, sir!" Watts stated as he moved past Squall. "That was perfect, sir!"  
  
"Its no big deal," Squall answered, truthfully. He then noticed Xu was regarding him, and nodded before she could say anything.  
  
"I did what I had to," he explained. "I'm not leaving a comrade behind."  
  
"I . . . thank you, Squall," Xu did manage to add as Watts helped her over the crate.  
  
"Really, sir, that was amazing," Watts added as Xu climbed over the crate. "Xu really owes her life to you." Again, Squall shrugged. It had been really nothing, just what came natural to the ex-SeeD.  
  
"Forget about it," he replied, and followed Watts over the crate and into the next car, which Zell had "procured" for their exclusive use, using his muscles and Zone's gun to scare the few people scattered around the car to the front of the train. Thus, giving the members of AVALANCHE free run of this vehicle.  
  
Zell plopped down on one of the torn seats as Squall stepped in, walking past a half-asleep, bearded man who lay on one of the chairs at the back of the car. Watts was helping Xu sit, while Zone kept an eye on the door for anyone who might wander back into the car. Squall walked to the middle of the car and sat down as well, perched on the edge of his seat.  
  
"Hey, Squall, what the hell was that you did back there?" Zell asked, leaning back and crossing his arms. "You know, that SeeD trick where you use magic with no materia?"  
  
Squall reached into his left sleeve and pulled the jacket sleeve back, revealing a metallic bracer on his left arm, which seemed familiar enough to the rest of the rebels, as each of them wore something similar. The bracers had a number of small slots set into them, in which one placed materia orbs, which were then absorbed into the metal bracer via Shinra technology. From that point, the materia looked like small pinpricks of light, unless used to cast spell. The bracers were the primary means of utilizing materia to cast spells, though some weapons (such as the metal knuckles on Zell's golves) had been modified to use materia as well.  
  
There was only a quartet of faint lights on Squall's bracer, and those were all red. The eyes of the AVALANCHE members opened wide upon seeing those red lights, because they understood what they signified.  
  
"Are those Guardian Force materia?" Xu asked. "I've never even seen one before."  
  
Squall nodded, and touched on of the faint light sources, which solidified into a small, inch-diameter red orb, glistening with its own inner light. That was a Guardian Force materia, one of the rarest and most valuable materia types, as it contained the ability to connect with a powerful spirit and summon it forth. Of course, Shinra had cornered the market on GF materia, considering the other aspect of them that made them even more valuable.  
  
"Most of you know about GF materia," Squall explained, his voice reverting to a dull tone, almost as if reciting information from a manual. "Normally GF materia is simply used for summoning, but after the SeeD program was started by Shinra, the corporation's greatest authority on magic, Doctor Odine, discovered an alternate use for the materia. The entities that we connect with through GF materia allow for the 'junctioning' of magical energies directly to physical capabilities."  
  
"You mean you use magic to make yourself stronger?" Zell asked. Squall nodded.  
  
"The magical energies normally conjured by materia are drawn directly from materia," Squall added, nodding toward Zell. "That's what I did back in the reactor, though I actually just drew electrical energy from your materia to cast it at X-ATM092. That's where I get my magic from."  
  
"A lot more efficient that materia, actually," Xu commented. "Not needing individual materia to cast spells gives you more room in your weapons and gear to store other materia." Squall nodded.  
  
"The only trade-off is that I can run out of magical energy," he added, "so I need to use my magic sparingly, or I lose my enhanced edge."  
  
"Not like with ki manipulation, huh?" Zell asked, grinning. Squall nodded.  
  
"Being easier to learn does have its trade-offs," Squall replied. He glanced back at Zell, his voice actually returning to its normal tone as opposed to the dull reciting from before. "You said you were a student of Zangan?"  
  
"Not just a student," Zell answered. "Zangan Dincht is my grandfather." Squall nodded, though he didn't immediately recognize the similarities between the burly, excitable brawler and the legendary, composed master of inner control and discipline.  
  
"He always told me I had a gift for controlling my spiritual energy," Zell added. "I was actually his quickest learner when it came to his trademark ki manipulation techniques. He taught me to focus it into my hits and into my body so I could take more punishment." Zell slapped a fist into one of his palms. "He always told me to use my training for the greater good. That's one of the reasons why I'm fighting Shinra now."  
  
As Zell was speaking, a red flashing light suddenly filled the train, as the normal train lights dimmed. Squall looked up, then checked his pocket, hoping Xu's fake identification would hold up. He waited through the security checkpoint section of the rail lines, as the system checked the identifications of everyone on the train and compared them with the names and information contained within the extensive database of Midgar citizens back at the main Shinra headquarters. After several long seconds, the security light turned off and the train's ordinary lights kicked back in.  
  
"Good job, Xu!" Zone commented with a grin and a thumbs up. "Looks like your IDs kept us from being picked up." Xu nodded with a smile, but said nothing. Moments later, the inside of the train lightened slightly as the vehicle left the darkened tunnels and moved around the outside of Midgar's central pillar.  
  
"Look at that," Zell commented, just as he always had whenever he was riding the train through this area. Squall looked out the window, following the brawler's gaze, to see the slums of Midgar stretch out below the city's upper plate.  
  
"The slums here never have a day or a night," Zell commented. "Its because of that plate up above that blocks out most of the sunlight, and the pollution that blocks the rest." Squall nodded, looking out over the horrible splendor of Midgar.  
  
Midgar consisted of two "cities", one being known as the "plate" for the more upscale and wealthy citizens of the city, and the other being the slums on ground level, where the lower classes lived on the barren, empty ground. The plate was supported by the central pillar, based directly under the massive Shinra headquarters tower, and by eight secondary pillars holding up each sector of Midgar. The plate itself towered over one hundred and fifty feet above the slums.  
  
"A floating city," Squall commented, looking up at Midgar's plate. It would have seemed eerie, but Squall wasn't that much affected by it. He was quite familiar with Midgar, having spent much of his life in the big city.  
  
"I don't normally see it from down here," he added, standing and crossing the car. He leaned forward, past Zell, and put his hands on the windowsill.  
  
"It's because of that plate up above that life's so hard on the people living in the slums," Zell growled, shaking his head.  
  
"If people don't like it in the slums, they should move up onto the plate," Squall reasoned. "Either that or out of town to begin with."  
  
"But they can't," Zell replied with another shake of his head. "People down in the slums usually don't have the money, or maybe they can't show their faces up on the plate because they're wanted by Shinra. Shinra doesn't usually come down to the slums after crooks, after all. And there's some people who won't move out because they love their homes too much."  
  
"True," Squall conceded. "No one lives in the slums because they want to." Some people worked hard to carve out their own little niches, a place to call their own, a place they would come to love and defend no matter how miserable it was.  
  
"The people are like this train," Squall added. "It can't go anywhere except where its tracks take it . . . ."  
  
--------------------  
  
About twenty minutes later, the train pulled into the station outside the Sector Seven slums. AVALANCHE were the first ones off the train, followed by a number of regular citizens. Squall was the last man off the train before it left, chugging off into the night. Zell quickly gathered the members of AVALANCHE to him for a quick after-operation meeting.  
  
"All right, good job everyone!" he began. "That job went off pretty well, but don't even think that's the tip of the iceberg! That little explosion was nothing compared to what's coming up! Trust me, Shinra's now going to be after us in particular - we're probably already all over the news now with our PR gimmicks. Let's meet up back at the base and come up with the next operation."  
  
With that, the group dispersed, Zone, Watts and Xu heading west across the slums. Zell was about to follow when Squall stopped him with a tap on the shoulder.  
  
"Wait a second," Squall began to say, but Zell cut him off.  
  
"Don't worry about the money," the brawler explained. "My stash is at our hideout. You'll get paid when we get back there." Squall frowned but said nothing, and followed Zell as the martial artist crossed the barren, flat grounds of the slums toward the west.  
  
Squall knew the slums were a nasty place to live. The lower region of Midgar served as the toilet, trashcan, and junkyard of the upper plate, refuse piled high in the only real landscape of the flat region of the Sector Seven slums. He ducked between two piles of scrap metal and beyond a lone house constructed of cheep plywood, sheet metal, and random pieces of discarded equipment. Squall remembered Zell describing it as one of the nicer homes in the area.  
  
They soon passed the outer perimeter of junkyards surrounding one of the slum towns, and moved past the Sector Seven pillar. The pillar was a massive stone column easily ten meters to a side and stretching up into the air to the bottom of the plate, with a tall metallic platform rising up to about halfway up the pillar for maintenance purposes. Squall gazed up there, realizing for the first time perhaps how any countless tons of metal, stone, and ceramics that hung over his head. Without that pillar, everyone in the Sector Seven slums would be utterly crushed.  
  
The pair soon passed the outer edge of the slums and passed deeper into the more populated region of Sector Seven. Numerous homes, constructed out of junk and scrap metal, rose up around the ex-SeeD and the martial artist as they passed through the "roads," which in and of themselves were merely any open space between the homes of the slum denizens.  
  
They threaded their way among the various rickety homes the slum denizens had cobbled together, until the duo approached a building made largely of wood, which struck Squall as surprising, considering the general prevalence of rusted metal and cardboard throughout the slums. Zone, Watts, and Xu were already inside the building, which Squall quickly realized was a bar instead of just another home. Zell rushed up the solid wooden steps and threw open the door.  
  
"All right, everyone out!" he shouted with a healthy roar and a wave of his hand. "Bar's closed! Don't have to go home but you can't stay here!" The sheer volume of complaints and angry responses from within was shocking, but Zell was undeterred, stepping inside. A moment or two later, one burly man was hurled clear out of the bar, rolling down the steps and past Squall, who deftly dodged the human missile.  
  
The rest of the drunkards within the building cleared out quickly.  
  
As soon as Zell reappeared at the top of the steps, Squall moved up. The brawler waved him in, then slammed the door shut behind him, hanging up the "Closed" sign and staying near the door to make sure no one would try to come back in. The inside of the bar was much like the outside, consisting of paneled wood that was hard to come by in the Midgar region. The tables were largely wood as well, though there were a few card tables and one large table made of sheet metal and stacked paint cans was located in the far corner of the room. A long bar was set up in the far left corner, the wall behind it stacked high with bottles and kegs of alcohol. A pinball machine - an oddity that stood out to Squall - was set up on the far right wall in the corner.  
  
Zone, Watts, and Xu were already sitting and relaxing, Xu's bandaged leg up on one of the tables as they shared drinks and exchanged stories about what had happened in the reactor and in their escape afterward. Squall began to walk over to them, but then paused, noticing the woman behind the bar.  
  
She was blonde, with long hair that hung down either side of her face in front, and done up in the back so it doubled back on itself before coming down. She wore glasses over her large, blue eyes, which widened as she looked at Squall. Those eyes were what immediately made Squall recognize her, as her body had changed so much over the last few years. When he'd last seen her, she'd been thirteen and still looking like a baby, almost. Now she had fully grown out, into a mature - and strikingly beautiful - woman.  
  
"Quistis?" he asked, equally surprised to see her. The woman managed a laugh and stepped around the bar, looking Squall up and down. He did the same, barely recognizing his childhood friend. Her sudden appearance prompted distant memories of their time together in Shinra's SeeD program, training side by side as children.  
  
"Squall?" she asked, shaking her head and smiling. "How long has it been?"  
  
"Five years, I think," Squall said, the edges of his lips turning up into the closest thing he could make into a smile of his own. He was almost too controlled to make even that much of a show of emotion, actually.  
  
"Zell told me he'd hired someone from SeeD to help out in the operation, but I didn't think it would be you," she exclaimed. "But I could have sworn I heard you were dead . . . ."  
  
"Not dead, " Squall said with a shake of his head, his somewhat cheerful mood briefly stolen by a grim pall that spread over his face. "Not yet."  
  
"Come on, sit down," she said, gesturing to the table where the rest of the group was lounging. Squall nodded and obliged, pulling up a chair to join the rest of the group. The members of AVALANCHE had been watching the exchange with interest.  
  
"You know this guy?" Zone asked, and Quistis nodded.  
  
"We were in the SeeD program together, though I managed to get out before the really hard-core training was initiated," Quistis explained. Squall nodded, but was fuzzy exactly on what had happened and why Quistis had left.  
  
"Why did you leave?" he asked, trying to remember, but unable to, for some reason.  
  
"They let me go," she explained, shaking her head. "Lack of leadership qualities, they said. Though I suspect that they just thought I wasn't aggressive enough." Zone and Squall nodded, and the AVALANCHE member glanced toward the other Ex-SeeD.  
  
"What about you?" Zone asked. "Why'd you leave?'  
  
"It's none of your-" Squall began.  
  
"Business!" Quistis jumped in, quoting the same word as Squall was about to say it. He glanced at her, annoyed. She had always been able to do that, guessing what he'd say before he'd even spoken the words.  
  
"Anyway, I'm not on the SeeD roll call anymore," Squall explained as Quistis laughed faintly, happy Squall was still the same person she remembered. "Being listed as dead does that to a person."  
  
"Hey!" Zell called from the door, now that the crowd had dispersed. He stepped across the room and dropped a hand onto the table. "No more screwing around! Let's get the debriefing meeting started." The rest of AVALANCHE rose, though none of them was eager to leave their drinks behind. Squall and Quistis joined them as Zell stepped over to the pinball machine. He paused and held up a hand.  
  
"Only enough room for four at a time," Zell explained, and gestured for the other three team members from the reactor to join him. "Ya'll stay here until we're down," he ordered, and kicked the machine twice. Instantly, the entire floor around the machine lowered down into a concealed basement. Squall nodded at the clever setup as Zell, Zone, Watts and Xu disappeared down below, leaving Squall and Quistis alone.  
  
"So, how did you end up with them?" he asked her, crossing his arms. Quistis actually laughed, putting a hand to her mouth. " . . . what?" he asked a second later, confused.  
  
"Still so direct," she commented, before stopping, her features becoming more serious. "I met up with Zell outside Junon a year ago. I had been living there for a while, and I met him as he was passing through. He wanted to go to Midgar, and he blabbed about doing something to stop Shinra. I was tired of watching the land around Junon and everywhere else Shinra touched wither, and I had nowhere else to really go, so I joined him." She shrugged. "I was actually hoping to run into you here, but no luck." Squall nodded, his grim expression returning.  
  
"A year ago," he said, then nodded again. "I was already deployed on my first mission. I've been away from Midgar ever since I was reported killed."  
  
"What happened?" she asked, and Squall quickly shook his head. "Don't want to talk about it?"  
  
"No." His word was quick and definitive. He wasn't going to talk about it. Fire, screams, slicing pains, treachery, sadistic experiments, cover-ups . . . no, he was still trying to grasp it all himself.  
  
Quistis understood that tone and said no more. By that time, the pinball machine had long since resurfaced, and they stepped onto the platform. Quistis flipped the hidden switches with a tap of her foot and the secret elevator descended.  
  
The room below was cluttered with all manner of gear. A large table was set up with a detailed map of Midgar stretched across it, one which Zone and watts were busily studying and marking. Zell was at the far end of the room, spinning off combos against a huge punching bag. Numerous patches on the bag and the odd random bit of stuffing on the floor testified to Zell's diligent practice. Xu was seated near the elevator, her leg propped up as she absently watched a big-screen television. As Squall and Quistis stepped off, Zell turned back to them, a quizzical expression on his face.  
  
"Squall, did you see anyone from SeeD in the reactor tonight?" Squall shook his head.  
  
"No," he replied, certain. "Trust me, if anyone from SeeD had been there, you'd all be dead - or in Shinra custody."  
  
"Glad to hear," Zell muttered, planting a fierce sidekick into the bag. Suddenly, Xu sat forward, and turned up the volume on her television.  
  
"Hey everyone, we're on TV!" she alerted them.  
  
The group quickly looked up from their tasks and gathered around the television screen, watching intently as a huge, fat man clad in a garishly expensive suit leaned behind a desk. Hovering above his head was the headline "Terrorists Strike Reactor!" Squall, along with everyone else, recognized the mustached fat man as none other than Alexander Louis Shinra, the President of Shinra Inc.  
  
"My fellow citizens of Midgar," Shinra began, his tone and expression grave and solemn. "Many of you have become aware that something terrible has happened inside our city, and it is my deepest regret to have to give you this dark news. A terrorist organization has struck at one of our reactors, the Number One Reactor between Sectors One and Eight. The reactor was destroyed from the inside, and we estimate that all personnel within the reactor were killed, as well as a number of citizens living around the structure. Preliminary estimates of the number of deaths totals in the mid hundreds, and is rising even as I speak. The insane criminals claiming responsibility behind this atrocity have named themselves 'AVALANCHE'."  
  
The President then sat up straight, his shoulders rising in what was probably an attempt at looking strong.  
  
"However, citizens of Midgar, do not fear!" he proclaimed. "Even now, the Shinra military is mobilizing, and I have deployed SeeD to maximize our efforts to locate and apprehend these criminal murderers. Security forces at all reactors are already being strengthened, and martial law has been imposed on Midgar's streets. If these criminals identifying themselves as AVALANCHE attempt to destroy our way of life and the security of our existence, we will crush them! I ask all citizens remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to the nearest security checkpoint. We at Shinra will protect our people. Rest easy tonight, Midgar, those who have done this terrible deed will face justice soon."  
  
Shinra disappeared from the screen, replaced by a local newscaster, but the rebel group paid him no mind.  
  
"Wow, I didn't expect Shinra himself would respond to this!" Zone commented, sitting back on the table. "This must have really sent some wheels spinning up in the Shinra Tower!"  
  
"Anything that risks their pocketbooks sets them off," Zell replied, turning back to his bag.  
  
"Sounds like we won't be able to hit another reactor anytime soon," Zone added, and several heads wagged in response. "We'll need an alternate plan."  
  
"Or even better," Xu added, a mischievious grin working onto her face. "How about we do hit another reactor?"  
  
"That's suicide, ma'am," Watts objected. "They'll be expecting another reactor hit. Security will be impossible to break through."  
  
"But they won't expect another attack so soon," Xu replied. "What do most rebel groups do after a major hit like this? They hide out and plan a new strike. But, if we move at first light, in the middle of the day, before Shinra's really gotten their forces into position-"  
  
"We can hit 'em with their pants down!" Zell finished, punching his hands together in approval. "They won't see us coming because its crazy to be going for another round so soon after the first hit. Come on, guys, we'll need to come up with a plan!"  
  
"Just a second," Squall interrupted, stepping up to Zell. "Before you get down to planning, I want my money for today's operation. I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart." Zell frowned, but nodded. He stepped over to a safe and opened it, before pulling out a thick wad of rubber- banded cash and tossing it to Squall. The ex-SeeD caught it, and tossed it once, feeling the weight, and then checking the numerical value of the top bill. He frowned.  
  
"Fifteen hundred?" he asked. "Chump change. If you want me in on the next job, I'll need twice that."  
  
"Three thousand!" Zell roared, outraged. "No way I can afford that much!"  
  
"Then I'm not going," Squall replied matter-of-factly, turning back toward the pinball machine. "I'm not risking my neck with you for less than that, especially considering how incompetent you're acting."  
  
"Say WHAT?" Zell exclaimed, rushing across the room toward Squall. The ex-SeeD turned back, his glowing eyes fixing the brawler where he stood as a sudden tenseness spread throughout the small room.  
  
"How serious are you, really?" Squall asked, looking among each of the rebels, even Quistis. "You come up with some half-assed suicide mission in five seconds? And you expect me to join," he held up the wad of gil "for this? I made six times this a month in SeeD. I'm not stupid enough to take part in this job without enough incentive to risk my neck. If you can't come up with the money, then you can go get killed by yourself." Squall turned around and stepped onto the pinball machine.  
  
"Squall, wait," Xu began, but Zell cut her off.  
  
"Forget it, Xu!" Zell growled. "Let him go. Looks like he still misses Shinra."  
  
"Make no mistake," Squall replied quietly, not looking back. "I'm no friend to Shinra or SeeD. But I don't give a damn about the planet, or your little revolution either."  
  
Squall kicked the switches on the pinball machine and the device rose up into the bar's ground level, leaving the stunned, silent rebels behind.  
  
--------------------  
  
The slums were still dark, polluted, and poor when Squall stepped out of Quistis' bar and began to walk away from AVALANCHE. He mentally counted the seconds it would take the pinball elevator to rise as he stepped away, and was not surprised when he heard the bar door swing open.  
  
"Squall!" Quistis called, but he didn't stop. Two seconds later, he heard the sound of shoes running across the barren slum flatlands and was not surprised when Quistis ran around in front of him and stood in his path, hands on her hips.  
  
"Squall, don't do this," she pleaded, both with her voice and her eyes. "Please . . . we need your help."  
  
"Its not my problem," he replied with a shake of his head. "If Zell can't pay, I walk. That's what being a mercenary means. You, of all people, should know that, Quistis.""  
  
"You only care about the money now?" Quistis asked, her tone accusing, which caught Squall off-guard. He firmed his jaw and nodded. Quistis glanced down at the bare dirt below her for a moment.  
  
"Maybe I was wrong," she muttered, then looked back up. "Maybe you're not the Squall I knew from my childhood." Squall said nothing, but his softly glowing eyes shifted subtly, reflecting distant memories tinged with pain.  
  
"You're right," he replied after a long moment. "The Squall you knew is dead. He died a year ago in some far-off battle no one knows about. I'm just his ghost; just a mercenary who can only find meaning pursuing something he can never grasp."  
  
"What?" Quistis asked, but Squall shook his head.  
  
"I don't want to talk about it," he replied. "I only took this job for money. Killing is what I'm good at; it's the only thing I ever learned to do. I don't have a stake in your mission."  
  
"And what about me?" Quistis asked angrily. "I have a stake in this. Remember what you told me while we were in SeeD? If I ever needed help, with anything, you'd stand by me, and I would stand by you. That's what being friends means!" Squall watched her, listening to her, but said nothing.  
  
"Don't you care about me?" she asked, but again, Squall said nothing. He looked into Quistis' blue eyes, the orbs wetting slightly with tears, and finally shook his head.  
  
"I don't want to get involved," he said darkly. "This isn't my fight. Your problems are not mine. Maybe, a long time ago, Squall Leonhart would have given a damn, but everyone betrayed me, the man I trusted most, the company I worked for and was loyal too . . . I've been sold out. I'm nothing now, and I'm not the boy I was before. I'm just a gunblade for hire." Squall stepped forward and around her, and moved toward the train station at a steady clip, saying nothing.  
  
"You promised!" Quistis shouted suddenly, turning toward Squall as he left. "You promised me that you'd stand beside me!"  
  
If Squall heard, he gave no indication as he walked away, disappearing into the slums. Qusitis watched him leave, tears almost bursting from her eyes, but managed to hold them in check somehow, before finally turning back to the bar. She slowly walked up the steps, recalling the boy she had known in her younger days. What had happened to him? What had Shinra done to Squall to turn him into this stone wall?  
  
Zell was waiting in the bar for her when she came back in. He saw the barely-held tears and understood their source. His teeth clenched in anger as he stood up from his stool so forcefully that it was knocked over.  
  
"So, he's gone, huh?" Zell growled. "Your 'friend' walked out on us?"  
  
"He's not my friend anymore," Quistis responded quietly. "Squall wasn't like that before. Something terrible happened to him . . . ."  
  
"Don't worry," Zell said, patting Quistis' shoulder. "We'll need to get prepared for the next operation, though with Xu's leg injured, we'll be short one."  
  
"Two thousand."  
  
Zell and Quistis spun to the open door, where Squall stood, his face impassive, his glowing eyes revealing nothing.  
  
"You need another man, I'm offering my services for two thousand gil," he stated, glancing to his childhood friend again. "Take it or leave it."  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- 


	4. Unwelcome Surprise

Chapter 3: Unwelcome Surprise

Squall was up early, climbing off the plush chair he had been granted in the basement hideout. Everyone had needed some rest after the planning session, which was remarkably short. Their target was the Number Five Reactor, and the plan was almost the same, except the infiltration would be via subway train tunnels as opposed to the surface route yesterday. Xu had obtained maps of the underground train tunnels and highlighted a chute that bypassed most security measures. Then plan would involve hijacking the train itself and destroying the engine car after safely detaching the passenger cars so no innocents would be killed.

"After all," she had said, "We're the good guys, right?"

Overall, the plan was sound - the destroyed engine car would be perceived as the planned attack, and if all went well, they'd blow the reactor before anyone even knew they had infiltrated the facility. Squall recalled his training and memory of Shinra response times and assured the team that the defenses around the reactor, while formidable, would be lax, not expecting another attack so soon after their initial strike. They may, however, encounter trouble on the way, he warned them.

Squall rode the elevator back up to the ground floor, where the rest of the team was eating a hearty breakfast. Squall sat down quietly, though the rest of AVALANCHE did not move out of his way or otherwise treat him badly. Last night's argument had been all but forgotten in the face of the mission planning.

"Too bad Xu will be missing the fireworks," Zone commented with a grin between bites of egg. "But I'm glad Quistis will be on the team to fill in."

"Don't screw up with the explosives," Xu warned, her leg still bandaged.

"Don't worry, ma'am," Watts said quickly, sitting beside her. "Squall will take care with the bomb, won't you?" Squall nodded. The plan was, once again, to have Squall and Zell, with Quistis supporting them in Xu's stead, infiltrate the inside of the Mako reactor, where Squall, who would carry the bomb, would plant the explosive inside the ventilation shaft. In the case they couldn't put the bomb in that way, Squall would just drop it off the bridge into the Mako. Simple.

"The tricky part will be the train," Quistis stated. "I'd prefer if we detached only the car behind the engine car, but there will be too much momentum with all the cars together."

"So we'll have to detach them separately," Zell replied. "It'll take longer, but shouldn't be too difficult. We'll have to do everything before the security checkpoint."

"Otherwise we overshoot the shaft leading down into the reactor," Zone finished, reciting the plan. "Once there, we sneak inside, you three drop the bomb while me and Watts cover the exit, then we clear our asses out of there. We hop on the next train out from Sector Four while Shinra is still crapping their pants at how we did it again."

The group finished their breakfast shortly afterward, though Squall, silent throughout, finished first. He moved to the far end of the bar and was busy checking over his weapon of choice, the gunblade he had dubbed the "Revolver." He quickly polished the steel of his gunblade, then popped open the chamber.

The gunblade's internal mechanisms were complex, in spite of the simple appearance of sword married to gun. The weapon was loaded with concussive-force shells, or just "bullets" as Squall called them. Each shell contained powerful explosive force that, whenever the trigger was pulled, would be sent down the length of the blade, with the strength to turn flesh to jelly and armored plating to shattered slag. Each "bullet," however, did not release all it's force in each shot, but rather contained multiple charges for multiple blasts. Each time the trigger was pulled, another "bullet" slid into place via the revolver system, in case something had gone wrong with this particular "bullet" and it couldn't fire anymore, and also to just keep the mechanisms inside the already complex weapon as simple as possible. The revolver chambers would keep turning with each pull of the trigger, until all the shells had lost their explosive power, at which point they'd be removed and replaced. Each "bullet" in Squall's gunblade had four charges, more than enough for the coming mission, especially with the low likelihood of conflict. And even if he did run out of charges, Squall had plenty of additional ammunition on the bandoleers around his leg.

The gunblade, of course, had a tremendous recoil. Or it would, if it weren't for compensators built into the handle to absorb the shock of the blast and to keep the gunblade in line. The compensators ultimately reduced the recoil to almost nothing, allowing the wielder to strike with amazing precision, yet hit his foes with devastating strikes.

But, the gunblade was a difficult weapon to master. The unusual design and shape of the weapon made most conventional sword disciplines worthless, meaning that the weapon required its own martial style. The curving handle and the trigger were among the most difficult aspects of the weapon to properly control, requiring a totally different grip and wrist movement. Properly learning to pull the trigger when swinging added to the difficulty; Squall had spent a few months in a firing range to get accustomed to firearms, to help him understand the complexities in the weapon. By the time Squall had finally mastered the gunblade, he'd come to understand why only the most skilled and dedicated swordsmen could properly wield the exotic weapon, much less utilize the gunblade to its fullest potential. Squall preferred to fight with a brutal, cleaving style that used the gunblade's sheer weight and mass.

Weapon loaded, Squall checked the trio of bandoleers around his leg, confirming he had enough gunblade ammo to last a week's fighting. Squall finished up his preparation by checking his equipment belt. He had a good supply of potions of different types: regular healing potions that worked amazingly fast, antidotes for poisons, eye drops in case he was blinded and needed healing for his eyes, echo screens to restore the ability to cast spells if they were somehow lost due to a magical effect, and a few phoenix downs, powerful potions that restored extremely grievous injuries.

One last thing Squall did was to check his back-up weapons: a pair of solid steel ten-inch combat knives. One he slid into a wrist sheath on his left forearm behind his materia bracer, the other into a sheath on the right side of his waist belt.

His preparations complete, Squall turned back to the rest of the group. Zell was outfitted, though that simply consisted of prepping his materia. Squall watched as Zell placed one green orb over the bracer on his left arm, the orb seeming to melt into a pool of shimmering emerald light and flow into the slot, where it became a simple shining light source.

Zone and Watts were loading their sub-machineguns, already equipped with some basic materia. Nothing overly powerful, just materia that bestowed healing magic, as they wouldn't need offensive magic in their supporting role. Quistis, on the other hand, had already equipped herself with a number of materia, both offensive and defensive. Squall watched her attach a long whip made out of a supple metal chain, with a curving, scythe-like blade on the end. It was a rante ber gangedug, a chain whip, and a very deadly weapon.

The blonde woman was outfitted for combat today, though she didn't immediately look it, wearing a high-collared peach zip-up vest, a similarly colored skirt that ran down to below her knees, detached black sleeves, and long black boots. A belt ran from her upper left hip down to her lower right, and hooked to it were her item pouches and backup knife.

Zell threw on a light, short-sleeved red jacket with blue flames running up the sleeves, along with a pair of long, baggy blue shorts, before lacing on a pair of durable red sneakers. Once he was finished, he turned back to his team with a grin.

"Alright, let's do this!" he shouted.

---------------------

The train was more populated this time, but that was to be expected of the morning rush hours as opposed to the middle of the night. Still, there weren't many people on the train; Sector Eight was one of the poorest of the slum sectors, and not many of its people used the train to reach the plate. There was also a rumor going around about something happening up top, and so a lot of people were staying home.

It looked like things would be fairly easy, so the quintet simply relaxed at first, not wanting to set off any alarms until they were in the tunnels. No one on the train objected to their carrying weapons on baord; most slum denizens were armed anyway. Squall waited beside Quistis, and ran through the plan one last time with her.

"The only way to unlock the couplings between cars is the maintenance panel on the outside of the train," he recited. She nodded. "I just need to enter the four digit code for each car to detach it."

"Exactly," she replied. "Its simple enough. Zone and Watts will go ahead and force everyone to the back of the train car, so you can detach that car without interference."

"Simple enough," he conceded. "Everyone knows the codes, right?" Quistis nodded, and they fell silent. They rode on in silence for several long minutes, until the train entered the tunnel signifying that they were rising to the upper plate.

"Look alive, people," Zell muttered. "As of now, the operation is a g-"

Red lights flashed throughout the train, and a brilliantly loud klaxon sounded throughout the train.

_"Warning!"_ a bland, computerized voice announced over speakers throughout the train. _"Unidentified personnel detected on board the train. Train lockdown commencing. Please wait while Shinra security units arrive to apprehend intruders."_

The voice repeated the mantra over and over again, while the members of AVALANCHE looked around in confusion.

"What the hell?" Zell growled, but after a long moment, Squall ran to the back of the train and opened a window. He leaned out, and was not happy to see what he saw.

Pursuing the train were a half-dozen small robotic units, looking like small metallic flowers turned upside down, their "petals" flapping in the air as they flew at high speeds. Along with the small sentry robots were a squad of least eight men, clad in a light suit of red armor, and equipped with a set of night vision and thermal goggles. Each of them carried a machine pistol in their right hand, while their left held onto a parasol-like device with rapidly rotating propellers that spun like a helicopter's rotors. The strange device was what allowed them to fly at high speeds, and the combined force of sentry robots and Shinra paratrooper commandos was rapidly closing with the train.

"Bad news, " Squall stated even as the paratroopers and their escorting robots neared the rear baggage train. "We have Shinra forces arriving. They'll be on us in moments."

"Move up the train!" Zell ordered. "Zone, Watts, take the lead."

"We won't have time to enter the codes," Quistis began to say, but Squall cut her off.

"Cover me, I'll handle the codes." he drew his gunblade, startling several passengers, and ran down to the front of the train car. A single swift kick took the train door off its hinges.

"Get ready to move ahead!" he shouted and dropped to the metal floor. "They'll conduct a car-by-car check, but if I can disconnect the cars it'll slow them down!" Squall pulled himself out so he was almost hanging halfway over the edge of the doorframe, his brown hair flying wildly in the rushing air.

"You two, up ahead!" Zell shouted to Zone and Watts, who reluctantly nodded and brandished their weapons, before running ahead to the next car. "I'm heading up top," he added to Quistis, who nodded. The brawler ran ahead, opening the door between cars, and climbed up on the outside of the vehicle, scrambling up onto the rooftop.

From his vantage point, Zell saw three paratroopers on the roof of the baggage car. They, and the pair of sentry robots with them, saw him as well. The paratroopers activated their propellers and began to fly forward, albeit slowly, considering they were moving along with the train. The sentry robots sped ahead, painting Zell with blood-red laser sights. Zell knew from personal experience that the robots were designed to incapacitate rather than kill, and their weapons were designed to render the target immobile. However, if Zell was paralyzed on top of the moving train, it meant almost certain death for him. And even if he did survive, the paratroopers would simply arrest him, and being in Shinra custody was not a pleasant place to be.

A flare of green light heralded Zell's solution, and he gestured toward one of the robots. A bolt of lightning tore into the machine, blasting it apart with sheer force alone and throwing the delicate machine back down the train tunnel.

Below, Quistis watched as Squall input the last code. A split-second later, the door to the baggage car flew open, and a quintet of the red-armored Shinra paratroopers burst in, brandishing their machine pistols. Quistis spun to face them, and her left wrist flared. A fireball lanced out into the lead soldier, striking him in the chest and throwing him off his feet to crash heavily into the two men behind him. Behind Quistis, at the head of the car, the train uncoupled, and Squall rose from his spot.

"Come on!" he shouted, throwing open the door and pushing her through even as the two rear paratroopers raised their pistols. Bullets were spat in the two intruders' general direction, but Squall managed to slam the door between cars shut in time to stop a pair of bullets that would have nailed Quistis in the back. Squall threw open the door to the next car even as the two vehicles slid apart. Quistis jumped in, followed by Squall, who looked back for Zell, though the brawler was not in sight.

A shape flew overhead in the tunnel darkness, and Squall recognized Zell's baggy shorts in the shadows. The brawler hit the rooftop running and bounded ahead, even as the second flying sentry robot marked him. The brawler spun and lashed out with a second magical blast, the electrical magic blasting apart the little robot. He then had to continue runing, as the trio of paratroopers had caught up and were firing at Zell. Zell managed to make his way to the front of the car and began to drop between cars, but launched a second magical blast, the electricity striking one soldier's propeller and blasting it out of commission. The man fell out of sight behind the train car, even as Zell dropped out of sight between the two train cars.

The quartet of sentry bots that had been in the baggage car were now flying outside and parallel to the train, even as the four remaining paratroopers from inside the car rushed forward and out of the door. They flew on in hot pursuit, four paratroopers trailing while two more closed with the train car. Those two readied their pistols as they closed, flying out wide to either side.

Squall dragged Quistis down to the floor, having already spotted the pursuing paratroopers, just before they opened fire with their machine pistols. Bullets strafed along the car as the men swept their weapons across the vehicle, automatic fire raking along the train. Many of the surprised and confused passengers had not had Squall's foresight, and as the glass of the train windows shattered around them, the passengers were cut down. Blood splattered and erupted everywhere as the lights were shot out. Someone screamed from inside the train, not a cry of fear or pain, but one of rage, and electricity lanced out from where Zell had entered the car. The lightning magic was the brawler's protest against the barbarity of Shinra, and it struck true, taking one of the paratroopers in the chest and tossing him back against the tunnel walls, his corpse quickly left behind by the speeding vehicles.

The other trooper ceased fire momentarily, to line up his shots at the brawler's position from the front of the train. The man began to squeeze the trigger when Squall rose, his hand extended, and bolt of lightning erupting from his open palm. The magic speared the man, killing him in midair and throwing him down to the tunnel floor.

Squall grabbed Quistis's shoulder, helping her to stand amid the wreackage of corpses and glass, and ran ahead to where Zell stood, shaking in anger. Squall agreed, even the cold mercenary outraged by the brutal act perpetuated by Shinra's paratroopers. What undoubtedly made Zell angrier was the fact that the train shooting would likely be attributed to AVALANCHE, knowing Shinra's ways and control of the media.

Still, they had no time to waste, as the remaining eight paratroopers were still in hot pursuit, along with their sentry robots. Squall didn't bother with uncoupling the cars, and instead ran on ahead to the next car, Zell and Quistis right behind him. He looked back a second time, and saw the paratroopers and their robots entering the car to sweep for the intruders, their thermal goggles glowing a bright red in the darkness. Squall reached into a pocket inside his jacket, unhappy he would have to do this, as it would definitively scrub the mission.

"Is that our bomb?" Zell muttered, seeing the small explosive in Squall's hands. The ex-SeeD nodded, and set the timer to five seconds before sliding open the nearer door into the blasted train car. The paratroopers spotted him instantly, but the lead man grunted as something hit him in the stomach. The man looked down at the object in time to see the red numbers indicating two seconds prior to detonation count down to one second.

Squall closed the door and hit the deck as the bomb detonated, utterly annihilating the train car and everyone inside it, man and machine alike. The car exploded into a burning mess of twisted metal. Squall rose from his spot on the floor and shook his head. He turned back to Zell and Quistis, angry he'd had to resort to that measure.

"This mission's scrubbed," Zell stated, and Squall nodded. Even if they had managed to defeat the paratroopers without using their bomb and uncouple the remaining cars, they still would have been stopped long before they got into the reactor, with the alert. It would be best if they simply aborted from here.

"We'll need to stop the train and work our way back to base," Squall explained, and the other two rebels nodded, even as Zone and Watts rushed back to their position.

"Sir!" Watts shouted, catching their attention. They looked up, and suddenly, they came to a realization as they actually looked into the car they were standing in.

It was empty. Not a single soul was in this car. Not only that, but there was nothing in the car at all. It was just a flat metal floor within two walls and a roof.

"The hell?" Zell asked, and Watts nodded.

"Its the same for the next car too, sir," Watts explained. "We didn't go to the engine car, but we're sure the entire train is empty like this. Only the first two cars had people in them."

"What's going on?" Quistis asked, and Squall shook his head, a very bad feeling working its way into his gut. That alert had sounded awfully early . . . almost too early. As if "preplanned" early?

"Is it just me, or is this train moving faster?" Zone asked.

"Engine room, now!" Zell shouted, and they bounded ahead, through the door leading to the next empty car.

Only, it was no longer empty. Three men stood in the car, two large men flanking a shorter, overweight, blonde man clad in a garish business suit and smoking a cigar. The other two men were outfitted for combat rather than a social function, each one wearing light but durable torso armor and a metal helmet that included a gray plexiglass visor that swing down over their eyes. They wore short-sleeve shirts under their chest armor, fingerless gloves, and bracers on their left arms glowing with the green light of materia. A pair of loose black pants stuffed into heavy boots ended the outfit, one that Squall recognized all too well. It was an outfit he'd hoped to wear one day, over a year ago.

"President Shinra," Squall stated, looking to the fat man. The man nodded, cocking a quizzical eye to Squall, not immediately recognizing him. Finally, the man nodded, and actually laughed.

"My, my," Alexander Louis Shinra said, shaking his head. "No wonder . . . so, I take it the five of you are this piddling annoyance called AVALANCHE?"

Zell slapped a fist into his palm and nodded.

"Name's Zell Dincht! I'm in charge here!"

"No, no, my friend," Shinra commented, shaking his head and laughing again. "You seem to have made a mistake. _I_ am in charge here, not pitiful you." He turned to Squall. "I didn't recognize you at first, but now I do. You're that former member of SeeD that was supposedly killed a year ago, correct?" Squall nodded. "Ah, yes. That explains how such amatuers were able to actually destroy one of my reactors. Forgive me if I forget your name. Even the names of our most elite soldiers tends to escape me . . . except, of course, for those like Sephiroth."

"Sephiroth?" Squall muttered darkly, clenching his teeth.

"A brilliant man," Shinra replied with a nod. "Too brilliant. Ah, such a waste. But I digress. I am getting off the topic here. I suppose now that its time to end this little game of ours, hm?"

"What game?" Quistis asked, and Shinra openly laughed, taking his cigar out of his mouth.

"You don't understand?" he asked. "Oh, I'm sure our SeeD friend does, hm?"

"The train was a trap," Squall stated, and Shinra nodded. "You knew we would use this train and set it up. That security alert was intended to get us to the front of the train."

"Exactly," Shinra replied. "We suspected you were based out of the Sector Seven slums, but weren't certain. To tell the truth, all the trains out of the slums have been set up the exact same way. My advisors told me not to come out here personally for the trap, but since I strongly expected you to use this train to reach your destination, I made arrangements. Now, I finally get to see the thorn that has cost me so much."

"You're gonna see more than that, you fat bastard!" Zell promised. "I'm gonna beat you so bad you'll see your guts staining the inside of this train long before you die!"

"How charming," Shinra replied, sounding bored as he replaced his cigar. "However, I do believe it is you who will be dying here today. For, you see, these men behind me are not regular Shinra soldiers. They, as your friend undoubtedly knows, are members of SeeD."

"Just two?" Zone commented, not impressed.

"No, not just two," Shinra replied, smiling. "These were just to make sure you didn't do anything rash. In actuality, the real danger is the fact that this train has been set up to impact with a very durable barrier set up about a couple of minutes down the track. The impact will crush all of you into something that the maintenance personnel will need paper towels and scrapers to remove."

"Bastard!" Zell repeated, and took a step forward. Immediately, the pair of SeeDs rushed around the President, one pulling a broadsword off his back while the other extended a quarterstaff. Squall rushed forward as well, stopping right in front of the pair of SeeDs, the Revolver drawn and readied.

"Oh, what is this called? Some form of standoff, I'd say," Shinra commented before turning around. An instant later, the train exited the tunnel, and passed through an open section of the central pillar of Midgar. Shinra turned and smiled as the thwipping of a helicopter's rotors could be heard overhead.

"I believe it is time for me to be going. I have a luncheon to attend." Then, he spoke in a lower voice. "Keep them busy. Don't let them escape!"

"Yes, Mr. President," both SeeDs answered, their tones grim and faces set into impassive masks of death. They were loyal to the company, totally and utterly, and would give their lives to protect it. Shinra then spun and ran for the door leading to the engine car even as the helicopter noise grew.

"Damn, he's getting away!" Zell shouted, beginning to move forward. He was stopped by Squall's left hand, rising up to ward the brawler back.

"Zell, move everyone back to the rear car and uncouple it," Squall ordered, his left hand moving back to his gunblade, not an instant too soon, as one SeeD's broadsword leapt forward into a jab at Squall's chest. Squall parried effortlessly, and caught the second SeeD's quarterstaff easily enough as it shot in a wide arcing strike.

"Go! I'll hold them!" Squall shouted over his shoulder.

"But Squall!" Quistis objected. Squall's response was cut short as he parried another hit from the sword-wielding SeeD.

"Go!" Squall shouted. "I said I'd be there for you when you needed me, and you need me now! Go, before we're all killed!" The Revolver weaved and intercepted three quick strikes as the two SeeDs struck in harmony, quarterstaff rising and jabbing while the broadsword cleaved.

"Let's go, Quistis!" Zell shouted Squall worked his gunblade furiously. Zone and Watts were already moving back, and the brawler had to forcibly grab and pull Quistis, who was locked into watching the doomed battle between her childhood friend and the impassive, suicidal SeeDs. Zell pulled hard, lifting her up with all the strength that his bulging muscles and _ki_ could manage, and dragged his comrade back into the empty third car.

The door slid shut, and Squall backed one step away, repositioning his feet. The SeeDs paused, detecting a sudden shift in their opponent. Then, as one, the two SeeDs lifted their visors back, revealing their eyes. With a simultaneous motion of their hands, they removed their helmets, and threw them away.

Squall nodded, his glowing blue eyes meeting two pairs of glowing brown. The SeeDs answered his nod, an unspoken greeting of honor between the two elite soldiers and their enemy, the silent camaraderie of true warriors meeting those of their same class.

Pretensions were thrown aside, loyalties were forgotten, and battle began, pure and beautifully deadly, a dance of bloody death.

Squall deflected a jab and a swinging staff, and leaped up and over the parried metal rod. The SeeD with the staff retracted the weapon and swung it upward at Squall's face. Squall parried in midair, the tip of his gunblade deflecting the metal rod aside. Squall hit the floor in a roll, whipping around and slicing across with his gunblade, forcing the SeeD to take a step back. The Revolver rose up in a weaving strike, hitting the SeeD's staff and forcing it aside, to block the cleaving slice of the sword-wielder.

Squall's left leg shot out in a sweep, taking the staff-wielding SeeD's legs out from under him, before rising to meet the sword-wielder. The man took a step back as Squall charged ahead, striking hard and fast with a cleaving chop of the Revolver. The SeeD's blade shot up to intercept, but Squall pushed on, using his weapon's weight and sheer brute strength to force the blade aside and smash his shoulder into the SeeD's chest. The SeeD flew off his feet to crash heavily to the floor.

The staff-wielder rose from his spot on the floor with a quick jab that almost took Squall in the ribs, but he reacted with lightning speed, spinning away and smashing his gunblade down on the weapon, forcing it down. Behind Squall, the sword-wielder rose, weapon rising for a decapitating shot. Squall ignored him, instead smacking the butt of the Revolver into the staff-wielder's mouth. The man fell back, clutching his blasted mouth (where several teeth were now missing). The sword wielder's weapon sliced in, but Squall was already ducking, the blade passing harmlessly over his head. A flick of Squall's wrist angled the backwards-turned gunblade toward the sword wielder's chest, and Squall spun, thrusting out with his right arm as he did.

The Revolver thrust through the SeeD's stomach, right through the opening he'd left with his cleave.

The man fell away, knowing he was already dead even before Squall tore the bloodstained gunblade free of his stomach. Squall then spun on the stunned staff-wielder, and rushed forward. the man raised his staff in a perfect block of Squall's first cleave, but then Squall applied pressure to the staff, turning it over. The SeeD reacted appropriately, pressing back against the staff as Squall attempted to angle his gunblade in for a thrust or cleave. But then, the staff-wielder was pressing his weapon against nothing, as Squall retracted his gunblade, in a manuever that put the SeeD off-balance. The Revolver jabbed right back in, however, behind the staff as it shot across, blocking a gunblade that wasn't there anymore.

The Revolver took the SeeD's throat, crunching through cartilage and windpipe in a fatal hit.

Squall pulled his weapon free and spun back to the car where ha had bid the rest of AVALANCHE to flee. He ran to the back door and opened it, to see Quistis, Zell, Zone, and Watts standing at or in the door of their car, far behind. Squall raised his hand in salute, glad that the rebels, and Quistis in particular, were safe - their car would stop long before the engine car he was riding impacted with the barrier ahead.

Quistis opened her mouth to say something, but Squall didn't hear it. Instead, he climbed to the top of the train car, a place where he knew his only hope of surviving resided. Wind whipped past him as he reached the roof, and Squall glanced back once more at Quistis' distant form. He waved farwell, and wondered if he'd ever see her again, before running forward along the rooftop.

He could see the barrier ahead, only seconds away, and reached the engine car. His only hope was to reach the front of the engine car and leap clear over the barrier - and then hope that he hit something soft, as just beyond the barrier was a hundred feet of empty air that overlooked what Squall guessed to be Sector Five's slums.

Squall reached the front of the engine car mere seconds before the impact, and leaped with all of his Guardian Force-enhanced strength. He flew over the barrier, and into the empty blackness beyond, into the perpetual night of Midgar's slums.

Squall leaped into darkness, and he knew no more.

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Well, do you like it so far? Its certianly an interesting experiment to write, I think. Of course, one of the central themes in this storyline is "What if?" and to this end I'll be exploring certian aspects of the various characters that we never get to see in the game. The characters' backstories will be modified signifigantly, and therefore the resulting characters may, at times, act drastically different from the way they acted in FFVII and FFVIII. This will be especially true in the next chapter.

As a side note, the name "rante ber gangedug" is the original name for the model of chain whip that Quistis uses. I don't know where it came from, but the whip's name was found in Sowing the SeeDs, by Greenbeans, who did some serious weapon research. I'll often refer to it simply as a rante, as I do in The Gunblade Saga.

Also, to quell some fears: this will not be a Quall. In fact, its important to the story I'm writing that this does not become one. Squall will not fall in love with Quistis, I will guarantee it. In fact...well, you will see aspects of Squall never explored in FFVIII, after all. Same with Zell, Quistis, and everyone else.


	5. Flowers and Angels

_Chapter 4: Flowers and Angels_

Squall hurt like hell.

Pain enshrouded his entire body, from his legs up to his back, all the way to his head. His skull complained heavily, as if it had been beaten repeatedly by something large, metallic, and heavy. It likely had, judging from what he last remembered before his insane leap of faith from the train. He tried moving his body, and to his amazed surprise, he found nothing broken, dislocated, or otherwise missing and out of commission.

"Are you okay?" a voice, beautiful and melodic, called from above him. Squall opened his eyes, and was momentarily confused, thinking he was actually dead. The angel looking down on him, her face hovering just a foot from his, testified to that fact. However, he realized no angel could have such beautifully deep brown eyes, eyes that were beyond even those heavenly entities.

Squall managed a slight nod as his mind was flooded with memories, those of last night and those familiar brown eyes. The flower girl from the plaza.

His stomach muscles complained mightily as he began to sit up, the girl moving up and back as he did so. Squall managed to pull himself into something resembling a sitting position, wincing in pain that redoubled from his exertion, his head swimming as he recovered.

"What happened?" he asked, a hand reaching up to his throbbing head. "Where am I?"

"A church in the Sector Five slums," the girl replied, crouching next to him. "You smashed down through the roof and scared the hell out me!" Squall looked up, seeing a man-sized hole in the rotting planks of the rooftop above. Strange, this building was made out of wood too.

"I'm amazed you're alive," she added, and Squall couldn't help but agree. "The rooftop must have broken your fall, and the flowers cushioned you, but I'm still amazed you lived through that!"

Squall then realized he was, in fact, sitting within a mass of soft plants, yellow and white flowers growing up all around him with remarkable thickness. Weird . . . nothing grew in the slums of Midgar.

"I'm sorry," Squall managed to say, but the raven-haired girl shook her head and smiled.

"Don't worry," she explained. "The flowers are very resilient. I think its because this place is sacred."

"Sacred?" Squall replied, shaking his head. He focused inside himself, calling up magical energies of restoration, and felt his pain ebb away slightly. What was the saying in SeeD? Pain was just weakness leaving the body.

"Yes," the girl replied, then noticing the white energy playing up and down Squall's body as the healing magic worked. "Wait a moment, let me help."

"Help?" Squall asked, as a gentle breeze wafted through the church all around them playing with his hair. The breeze carried a fresh, vibrant scent, almost as if a mortal before had never breathed the air. It was mysterious and revitalizing, and Squall felt his spirits lifted just by the sensations of air passing along his face.

It was a long moment before Squall realized his pain was almost completely gone.

"Better?" she asked, and Squall looked at her in sudden confusion as she stood, offering him a hand. He took it, and rose to his feet. Squall scanned the area automatically, taking in the run-down church, dust sitting heavily on the wooden pews, but lighter along the aisle between them. He stood on a mound of dirt just before the altar, within which grew the flowers, blooming without any apparent difficulty. Maybe this place _was_ sacred . . . .

"This is where you get your flowers?" Squall asked, and the girl cocked her head to the side, before her eyes widened in recognition.

"You were the one who bought my flowers in the plaza last night," she said, the words more of a statement than a question. Squall nodded. "How did you recognize me?"

"Your eyes," Squall replied. "They're beautiful, compassionate eyes. Something I'd never forget."

"Trying to sweep me off my feet?" she asked playfully, and Squall chuckled.

"Don't worry, you'll fall right back down once you get to know me," he assured her. He glanced over her once again, and noticed she wore a bracer on her left arm, just beneath the blue arm warmers. "You have materia?" he asked, and she nodded, glancing down at it. Only a couple of lights glowed on her wrist, both green.

"Yeah," she replied with a nod. "I have another one, but it's . . . unique." She reached up to a small necklace around her neck, and lifted up a silver ring, from which shone a faint, pure white light. "It's good for absolutely nothing."

"You just don't know how to use it," Squall replied easily, but she shook her head.

"No, I know how to use it," she replied. "But it doesn't do anything. But that's okay." she looked back down at the ring and the white spark. "My mother gave it to me. I feel at peace when I'm wearing it . . . ." She set the ring down and looked back up to Squall, her expression suddenly curious, her brown eyes searching his glowing blue.

"You know, we haven't even introduced ourselves," she commented, smiling. She held out a delicate hand. "My name is Rinoa. Rinoa Heartilly."

"Squall Leonhart," Squall answered, taking her hand and shaking it. "I'm not your regular citizen," he added, and Rinoa nodded, having already figured Squall out.

"You're a soldier, aren't you?" she asked, and Squall shrugged.

"More of a jack of all trades, really," he replied. "Fighting is my specialty, though. I do whatever I need to."

"Hmm . . . ." Rinoa murmured, putting a hand to her chin thoughtfully.

"What?" Squall asked, but whatever she was going to say was cut off by the sound of footsteps sounding clearly on the wooden floor of the church, near the door. They both looked up at the direction the noise came from, and both tensed immediately from recognition, though for different reasons.

Stepping into the church came a single man with spiked hair the color of blood, pulled into a ponytail that trailed down his back. A pair of tinted goggles rested easily on the forehead of his slender, angled face. He wore a dark blue suit, the jacket open to reveal a rumpled, partially unbuttoned white shirt beneath it. He had dark blue pants that matched his jacket, and black shoes. His right hand held a short, thick rod, maybe a foot long, that twirled absently in his hand as he strode down the aisle, regarding the two. His step was calm and practiced, the deadly yet wary confidence of a man who had seen a lot of fights, but had rarely been bested.

Squall stepped forward, between the man and Rinoa, hand dropping to his gunblade hilt as he recognized the distinctive uniform, and more importantly, the man himself. The man, too, recognized Squall, but only after a long moment's regard.

"Well, this is surprising," he commented, smiling faintly. "I'd never expected to see you alive, Leonhart."

"Reno," Squall replied to the red-haired man. Reno D'Angelo, one of the foremost members of Shinra's ultrasecret intelligence unit, grinned.

"Dropped by to check out that loud noise, and look what we find," Reno commented, ceasing the twirling of his rod. "Exactly who we were searching for, _and_ someone who came back to life, to boot." Reno's left hand rose to his ear, and he muttered something.

"Squall," Rinoa whispered urgently, and the ex-SeeD looked back to her. "I need your help."

"With what?" he asked.

"I need you to get me out of here," she asked, the urgency rising. Squall shrugged and nodded.

"It'll cost you," he remarked, but he let the tone indicate he wasn't serious about an actual payment.

"Okay," Rinoa replied, then smiled mischievously. "How about a date?"

Squall almost laughed, but then gave the idea another thought. He recalled how, last night, he'd wondered where their meeting might have led without the Shinra soldiers. After all, he would have done this even without a reward. Why not?

"I'll hold you to that," he replied, looking back to Reno, who was finished talking with whoever it was he was speaking with. The man smiled as a pair of similarly uniformed figures rushed through the door. One was huge and burly, the other small and petite. Squall recognized both of them immediately, and frowned. Things were about to get more complicated than he'd thought.

"Reno, we're here, ya know!" the big, burly one, a not-too clever teenager named Raijin, boomed. He was dark-skinned, with short black hair that was braided into small, thick dreadlocks. His suit must have been custom-fitted to his massive frame, as beneath the blue outfit, the man's chest was easily three feet wide, and his body was covered with musculature. A pair of sunglasses rested easily on his head, their stylish look not being truly effective in making the massive man look cool. A huge, heavy _bo_ staff, one that even Squall would have a hard time lifting, rested easily on the man's shoulders.

Beside him stood his sister, Fujin, who was almost the exact opposite of her massive brother. She was tiny, smaller than even Rinoa, and petite, with short, dyed silver hair. An eyepatch covered her right eye, though Squall knew that the patch was merely style, and that the eye beneath was in perfect condition. She, too, wore a dark blue suit, this one slightly too large for her, the hem of the jacket dropping down almost to her thighs. Unlike Reno, however, both Fujin and Raijin had their jackets buttoned up, conforming more closely with their organization's regulations. A large bladed chakram, a metal ring designed for throwing, rested easily in her hand, and three more of the rings were on her left hip. On her right, Squall noted, was a holstered machine pistol.

"FOUND," Fujin growled, abiding by a personal philosophy of limiting her words to only the bare essentials. Reno nodded, twirling his rod once more.

"You want us to rough the pretty boy up?" Raijin asked Reno, the _bo_ staff coming off his shoulder. Fujin glared at him, and sent a swift kick into her brother's shin. He yelped in pain, hopping up on one leg like a dancing bear.

"IDIOT!" Fujin growled. "RECALL?"

"Huh?" Raijin asked, confused, until Fujin pointed at Squall.

"SQUALL!" she growled, and Raijin looked again, recognition hitting him like a sack of bricks.

"Hey, it is Squall!" Raijin exclaimed, putting his smarting leg down. "I thought you were dead! Hey, man, you seen Seifer lately?" Squall shook his head.

"Not since before the last mission," Squall replied with a shrug.

"DEAD?" Fujin asked, nodding toward Squall. Again, Squall shook his head.

"Not yet," he responded firmly.

"If we're finished with the reunion," Reno muttered, "Can we get on with this?" He twirled the rod once again as, behind Fujin and Raijin, there stormed in a squad of blue-clad Shinra soldiers.

"If you want me, come and get me," Squall replied, drawing his gunblade, though the odds weren't good.

"You?" Reno replied, chuckling. "No, Squall, you're confused. We don't give a damn about you, or any bunch of rebels you may have thrown in with." Reno nodded toward Rinoa. "Its her we want. Stand aside and you won't get killed for real this time."

"Not acceptable," Squall replied, the Revolver rising. Reno shrugged and nodded.

"Okay, fine with me," he said as if it didn't matter one way or the other. He tapped a button on his rod, and it extended outward three feet into a long metal baton, electricity crackling on the tip of the device. "Kill him and grab the girl." The Shinra soldiers began to step forward, cocking the actions on their rifles.

"IDIOTS!" Fujin snapped, slapping the nearest soldier, who fell back, confused, to trip over a pew and crash to the floor.

"Yeah, don't use your rifles, ya know!" Raijin added. "We want the girl alive, ya know. Use your tonfas!"

Squall firmed his jaw and readied for combat as the Shinra soldiers hastily complied with their superiors' orders, each man pulling a solid ceramic tonfa off their belts and moving forward toward Squall. The Revolver rose into a ready position, prepared to cut down the first soldier to get too close.

"Not here!" Rinoa protested. She grabbed Squall by the shoulder and pulled him back. "You'll ruin the flowers! There's a way out in back!" Squall had to agree, as he wasn't sure he could take on all the Shinra soldiers, even if they wouldn't use their firearms. Rinoa turned and ran to the back of the church, toward a door hidden in an alcove just beyond the altar. Squall followed, even as the Shinra soldiers charged after them, their blue-clad superiors right behind.

Squall and Rinoa burst through the door into the back of the church, and Squall paused for a moment, blinking in confusion. Most of the back room was in shambles, the floor missing to reveal the basement far below, with only a few parts of the floor remaining, one section stretching ahead of them. A single huge rocket was crashed in the middle of the chamber, its engine poking out through the roof of the structure. Squall spotted a staircase to the rooftop just beyond the rocket, though a wide gap too far to leap separated them.

Squall nodded toward the staircase and ran toward it. Rinoa hesitantly followed, though when they reached the edge of the gap, she paused, unsure what Squall was planning.

"Climb onto my back," he explained as he sheathed his weapon, and Rinoa, trusting that Squall knew what he was doing, complied. She climbed up onto Squall's back, arms wrapping around his neck.

"Hold on tight," he warned her, and then leaped, just as he had in the reactor last night, with Xu on his back. His enhanced muscles propelled him across the gap, in a leap too far for an ordinary man. He landed lightly at the foot of the stairs, and let Rinoa off his back.

"Come on!" he told her, jogging up the stairs. Rinoa quickly followed and Squall took a quick look back at their pursuers. Reno and Raijin had pushed ahead of the rest of the group, reaching the edge of the destroyed floor and leaping as well. They flew across the gap just as easily as Squall, and landed less than a dozen feet behind the fleeing pair.

"Go on!" Squall told her, and Rinoa began to run ahead while Squall spun on their pursuers, drawing his gunblade again. Reno and Raijin paused for a brief second, side by side on the staircase, before Reno nodded.

"Raijin, go get our lady," he ordered, and the big, burly man rushed forward. Squall began to move to intercept, but a blast of energy from the tip of Reno's baton forced him back. Still, Squall could have struck at Raijin as the burly fighter bounded up the stairs past him, but then Reno was there, his baton thrusting at Squall, the sparking tip aimed for the ex-SeeD's chest. The Revolver intercepted, even as Raijin ran past after Rinoa.

"I don't have time to play with you," Squall muttered, responding to the thrust with a brutal cleave that forced Reno back and down a step. Squall backed away, trying to move up the staircase, but Reno paced him with another swing, the agile spy sidestepping to the left around Squall in an effort to get past him.

Squall wouldn't have that, and turned with Reno to the left, his left foot rising to take another step up, not letting the red-haired fighter get by. Reno grinned and hopped up another step as well, pacing Squall, his baton diving in again. Squall parried the sparking weapon, countering with a thrust that Reno hopped up and to the side to evade, the motion taking him up another step. The spy began to angle himself around Squall, trying to take the upper ground as he thrust again, but Squall's response was sudden and aggressive. Even as Reno's baton was parried by another quick motion of the Revolver, Squall rushed forward with another cleave. Reno got his baton up and around to intercept the slash, but was forced back on his heels by the sudden rush, his attempts to get above Squall deterred immediately.

Raijin thundered up the steps after Rinoa, even as she was reaching the top of the staircase. The girl glanced back to see the big, burly fighter bounding up after her, and ran on, moving along the remains of the rooftop in an effort to get to the attic. Raijin pursued her as she jumped a short gap in the remains of the blasted ceiling and ran up a short flight of steps to the attic. He leaped the gap as well and was only a few feet from the steps when Rinoa spun next to a one of several barrels that were stored in the attic. She pushed the heavy object over, rolling it toward the steps. Raijin bounded up the steps in time to see the barrel just before it slammed into the burly brawler, knocking him down the steps, and more importantly, off the damaged upper floor. He managed to shout in surprise as he dropped down amidst the Shinra soldiers below, who quickly scattered out of his way. Raijin smashed face first into the wood, cracking the remains of the floor.

"Ouch," he managed to mutter, while his sister shook her head.

"IDIOT," she growled.

Squall pressed Reno hard, slicing with brutally fast and powerful cuts that kept the red-haired man on his heels. Squall's real goal was not to kill the spy, but merely to force him back.

Squall saw his opportunity as Reno parried and countered another slice, the baton shooting in at Squall's neck. Squall snapped his gunblade up, catching the baton low on the weapon, near the gun aspect. The ex-SeeD's left hand then detached from the gunblade's handle and shot up, grabbing the deflected baton and pushing it out wide. Squall then thrust forward at Reno, his gunblade aimed for the man's chest. Reno backed away quickly, easily managing to evade the thrust, though he immediately understood Squall's intent when he felt his feet touch nothing but air.

Reno fell off the stairs and plunged into the basement, smashing hard into the floor. He let out a painful wheeze and began to stand, even as Squall ran up the stairs to link back up with Rinoa.

"RENO!" Fujin called from up above as the red-haired man stood, shaking his head.

"I'm fine," Reno replied, a green flare coming from beneath his left sleeve. White energy played over his body as the healing materia mended his wounds. He then turned to the rocket and began climbing up its side.

"PURSUE?" Fujin asked, but Reno shook his head.

"Not today," he replied as he scaled the rocket with practiced ease. "We'll let the Ancient go for now. It's not like she can hide forever, even with an ex-SeeD protecting her." Moments later, Reno had reached the ground level with the rest of the group, and waved them on. He glanced back up to the rooftop as his men left, where Squall and Rinoa were nowhere to be seen.

"Heh," he muttered as he followed his group out. "Haven't had a fight like that since . . . ."

* * *

"They're after me again," Rinoa commented as they sat on the roof of the church, resting after the escape. Squall was sitting up, while Rinoa lay back, looking up at the plate far above. From their vantage point, they could see hills of junk and trash stretching across this section of Sector Five, only broken by the occasional small slum village.

"This isn't the first time they've been after you?" Squall asked, and Rinoa nodded.

"That man," she said. "You know him?"

"His name is Reno D'Angelo," Squall explained. "One of the top-ranking members of the Turks."

"Turks?" Rinoa asked, and Squall nodded.

"Shinra's ultra-secret intelligence unit," Squall replied. "They handle all of Shinra's dirty business. Kidnapping, assassination, spying . . . but why are they after you?"

"It's complicated," Rinoa explained with a shrug. "They think I'm important, though." Squall said nothing, but began to stand up.

"We should head for your home," he said, and Rinoa nodded. "Where is it?" She pointed across Sector Five, at one of the larger slum villages nestled among the mounds of trash.

"Just over there, not too far away," she answered.

"We can probably make our way over the trash mounds," Squall commented, stepping to the edge of the roof. Rinoa nodded and followed him to the edge, where he leaped off toward the nearest mound, practically right next to the church roof. He landed easily, and waited for her to follow. She also dropped down to the mound and scrambled up it with odd familiarity. She must have been used to scaling these mounds.

Squall led the way, hopping from mound of garbage to mound of garbage, occasionally hopping off the roof of the random house someone had erected out in the junkyard. Rinoa paced him, though she was having a harder time, and after about twenty minutes, he paused to give her a break. Rinoa sat down against a ruined stone pillar, panting.

"Squall," she asked after a moment. He turned to her. "Were you in SeeD?"

"Formerly," Squall said with a nod. "I left after a mission went sour. How did you know?"

"Well, you were familiar with those Turks," she explained. "But I figured you were with SeeD because of your eyes. They glow strangely." Squall nodded.

"Byproduct of constant junctioning with Guardian Force materia," he replied. "Its a mark of SeeD. How did you know?" Rinoa shrugged.

"I picked it up from my father," she explained. "He used to be part of the Shinra military and knew all kinds of things about the army."

"What was his rank?" Squall asked, sitting down with her.

"He was a general before he voluntarily left," Rinoa explained. "He refused to accept Shinra's abuse of its citizens, so he walked out."

"A general?" Squall asked, impressed. He tried recalling who this general may have been, but his memories were hazy.

"General Hibrom Caraway," Rinoa said, and Squall frowned, trying to recall.

"I don't think I've heard of him," he replied, and Rinoa nodded.

"No surprise, he left when I was only five," she explained. "They probably never taught you about him. That's the way Shinra operates."

"Yeah, I know too well about how they handle their business," Squall muttered darkly.

"What do you mean?" she asked, but Squall shook his head.

"I don't want to talk about it," he replied, almost coldly, standing. "Come on, let's go."

Another fifteen minutes later, the pair managed to find their way to the end of the junk piles, just outside Rinoa's slum town. They hopped off the debris piles and made their way into the town, which Squall confirmed with his own eyes as the largest of the slum towns in this sector, even larger than the slum village that AVALANCHE was based out of.

Of course, with the pretense of civilization in the slums, there came the dangers of civilization. Squall counted no fewer than thirty men roaming the dirty streets of the town that were carrying weapons of some sort, and several of these men seemed to be very nasty sorts, judging from their gaits and their eyes. A couple of them sent Rinoa leers that could nicely be described as base and vulgar, but none of them made even the slightest move toward her. They made equal notice of the warrior that walked with her, a warrior who could snap any of them in half, one-handed.

Rinoa threaded between homes made of sheet metal and discarded refuse from above, and passed by several large drainage pipes that had been converted into homes by those unfortunate enough to not have access to the proper building materials. They made their way generally north, passing by a trailer that had been converted into a weapons shop, and then, Squall was almost knocked flat by what he saw.

There was apparently a gap in the plates above, as fresh, clear sunlight streamed down onto the home ahead. However, that was not the most immediately striking feature that Squall saw, for behind the house was a field of yellow flowers, in an amount that almost boggled his mind.

"What?" Squall asked as Rinoa led him toward the house, which could easily be described as one of the nicest homes in the entire slums. It was made of paneled wood and masonry, with a rooftop painted pink, and flowers growing out of every window. It was like he had suddenly been transported to a normal, healthy village instead of the squalor of Midgar's slums.

He looked again to the field of flowers, and the clear sunlight, which was in fact streaming down through a gap between Sector Six and Sector Five's plates. He glanced to Rinoa, and remembered her words from the church. Was this another "sacred" place in Midgar, the city that refused nature?

"Dad!" Rinoa called as she stepped through the door into her home. The inside of the house was as nice as the outside, with tiled floors and a homey look that struck Squall as out of place. This was Midgar's slums . . . nice houses weren't allowed down here.

A man stepped out of the kitchen, a huge smile on his face as he did so. He pulled Rinoa into a hug, happiness showing on his aged, wrinkled features. The man was muscular, moving with a fluid gait that spoke of training as a soldier, and eyes that reflected bitter experience mixed with paternal love. He released his daughter and looked up to Squall, his expression shifting from happy to quizzical.

"Dad, this is Squall," Rinoa introduced. "My bodyguard. Squall, this is my father, Hibrom Caraway."

"Pleased to meet," Caraway said, extending a hand. Squall shook it with a nod.

"Same here," Squall answered, giving Caraway a firm, military shake.

"Were you chased again?" Caraway asked Rinoa, who nodded.

"Don't worry," she assured her father. "Squall took care of them." Caraway nodded, and looked into Squall's eyes, before his expression shifted to understanding.

"SeeD?" Caraway asked, and Squall shook his head.

"Former," he replied. Caraway nodded, and smiled.

"Thank you for protecting my daughter," he said. "Make yourself at home for now. It's the least I can do for someone who saved my little girl like that." Squall nodded, and Caraway turned back to the kitchen.

"I want to thank you too," Rinoa told Squall who shrugged.

"Just doing my job," he replied.

"Do I still owe you that date?" she asked with a smile, and Squall shrugged again.

"I always remember my debts," he replied. Rinoa's smile grew.

"I think I'll remember too," she said. "What do you plan to do now?"

"I'll be headed for Sector Seven," Squall explained. "I need to meet up with some people there."

"Who?"

"My employers," Squall explained. "A rebel group called AVALANCHE."

"The ones who bombed the reactor?" Caraway called from the kitchen, and Squall nodded.

"I dropped in on Rinoa in the middle of a job I was doing for them," Squall explained. "I need to get back to Sector Seven and link up again."

"Seven's a long way from here," Rinoa commented. "Not the easiest road, either, you'll have to pass through Sector Six. Want me to go with you?" Squall shook his head.

"I can handle myself," he explained.

"Well," Caraway called, stepping out of the kitchen. "If you're going to go, why don't you go in the morning? If you leave now you'll be in the middle of Sector Six at nighttime, and you don't want to be there in the middle of the night." Squall nodded, conceding the point.

"All right, I'll stay here for the evening," Squall agreed. "I'll be out of here first thing in the morning, though."

"I'll go ahead and get your room ready," Rinoa said, and left up a flight of stairs at the back of the house, leaving Squall alone with Caraway.

"Squall," Caraway said as soon as Rinoa was away. "Listen, there's something important I need to ask of you."

"What?" Squall asked, curious. Caraway looked back up behind him to where Rinoa had gone.

"I heard Rinoa say she wanted to help you get to Sector Seven, and, well," Caraway paused for a moment, then gave an embarassed laugh. "I'm afraid she's pretty stubborn. If you leave in the morning, she'll probably want to go with you anyway."

"I just told her I could handle myself," Squall replied. Caraway simply shook his head in apology.

"She's going to follow you," he explained. "Nothing will stop her, not even the entire Shinra army. So, could you please leave early, before she wakes up, and get out of Sector Five before morning?"

"No problem," Squall replied with a nod.

* * *

It was sometime early in the morning when Squall opened his eyes. He tended to wake early; it was ingrained into him, after spending so many years training and operating for Shinra, every day waking early in the morning for physical training that would make most Shinra regulars blanch at the exertion. Thus, he was up early, even before the sun had risen outside on the plate, and quickly rose. Squall moved stealthily but quickly, getting his gear together and rechecking his gunblade.

Once everything was in order, Squall quietly cracked open the door to his room. Rinoa and her father had given him a small guest bedroom, through the room could be more accurately defined as a walk-in closet with an identity crisis.

He edged out of his room, feet rising and falling silently with each step in the classic heel-to-toe method all SeeDs were taught. He stepped forward across the wooden boards of the house's second floor, smoothly shifting his weight between legs, and not a single board creaked, squeaked, or otherwise betrayed him. Within moments, Squall had reached the stairs and moved down them.

He was out of the house without another sound, long before he heard anyone within stirring.

Squall was outside the slum town shortly afterward, charging across the barren landscape and the hills of refuse piled high around him. Very soon, he saw the gate separating this sector of the slums from Sector Six poking over the top of the mounds of garbage, and increased his pace. Squall weaved among the metal and paper mounds with ease, and soon rounded the final hill and came within sight of the gate.

"Hi, Squall!" Rinoa called, standing in front of the gate. Her words, her voice, and the sight of her standing there, right in front of the huge metal structure, caused Squall to almost trip in surprise.

"How . . . ?" Squall began to ask, but Rinoa just laughed.

"You're up awfully early," she commented, crossing the open stretch between them. Squall got the distinct impression she wasn't just sending him off, especially from the weapon mounted on her left arm. It was a modified crossbow gun, strapped to her forearm, with a magazine of bolts mounted on top for quick loading. Squall knew the power behind the particular model Rinoa wore; the string had a draw weight of over a hundred pounds, enough to drive the bolt through body armor.

"I wasn't going to ask you to go," Squall said with a shake of his head.

"So you were going to leave early to avoid me asking to come with you," Rinoa finished with a nod. Squall frowned, uncomfortable with how effortlessly Rinoa had read him. He had known her for less than a full day and she had already figured him out?

"Well, we can't wait around all day," Rinoa added, turning back to the gate. "Come on, Sector Six is going to be rough; the sooner we get moving the better." Squall wanted to tell her not to, but after a long moment he simply conceded to her demands. Something told the ex-SeeD that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop her now.

The pair moved beyond the huge gate and stepped into the ruined, broken landscape of Sector Six. Sector Six could best be described as one of Midgar's greatest failures. It had been an effort to build up the ground level to make the city more prosperous and to better the lives of the slum denizens, but the project had fallen victim to an odd alliance of problems: budget cuts, covert sabotoge by Shinra officials who didn't want the poor slum denizens to become stronger and richer, and the creeping problem of monstrous infestation. Shinra wouldn't spare the military force to keep the monsters at bay, and without the money, the project could never be completed. Workers left their jobs without the proper pay, and many also left out of fear of monster attacks without Shinra's protection.

Thus, Sector Six had been written off as a failure over a decade ago, and in the intervening time, the landscape had become a broken, twisted stretch of asphalt, abandoned construction equipment, and dark holes where the dregs of society made their homes. It wasn't the nicest place; in fact, Sector Six was considered the most dangerous of the eight slum sectors, and for good reason.

It took a long while for Squall and Rinoa to cross the landscape. Squall often scouted ahead, his glowing eyes scanning the terrain ahead with practiced awareness, searching for threats. Twice he had to move quickly, drawing his gunblade as strange mutant creatures, looking like gray, dog-sized insects with whipping tails and wide, gaping mouths, had attacked, and once he had been forced to go completely around one segment of the landscape.

"What's wrong?" Rinoa had asked as he changed directions.

"Mechanized equipment doesn't normally grow spines or walk around on its own, does it?" Squall had asked, and Rinoa's eyes had widened, but she said no more, understanding how bad the Mako poisoning was out here. While it wasn't so terrible as to transform nonliving machinery into living monsters, it did show a marked tendency to mutate creatures into something that would blend in with their surroundings. People passing through Sector Six avoided the supposedly abandoned equipment for good reason.

It took four hours of negotiating the terrain, Squall and Rinoa climbing up metal beams, crawling through open sewer pipes, and scaling hills of asphalt and metal. Squall had to often double back on his previous route as the path they took dead-ended. The terrain was a confused mess, but eventually the pair managed to move beyond the broken highway into more sane and flat terrain.

Shortly after leaving the highway, they came into sight of the Sector Seven gate. Just before the gate was a small, abandoned playground, another part of the renovation project gone sour. At least this bit had been completed.

"There's the gate," Squall muttered, and Rinoa nodded. He turned back to her. "I guess this is goodbye?" he asked, but Rinoa didn't seem to agree.

"Not likely," she replied with a grin. "I'd be a fool to go back through there by myself. Mind if I stick with you or a bit?"

"You should be heading back," Squall began to say, but Rinoa cut him off.

"I can always take one of the trains," she replied. "I'll use the one in Sector Seven." Squall was about to protest, but he realized he had no logic to back it up. Finally, he conceded with a nod.

"Let's take a break, at least," he said, and Rinoa agreed. They walked into the abandoned playground, and Rinoa opened her mouth in happiness. Squall was about to ask why, but she simply ran ahead, toward a slide that looked like a white dome, complete with a ridiculously cute face on the front. She quickly climbed up the slide and sat down on top of it.

"I can't believe its still here," she said with a laugh. "Come on up here, Squall!"

Squall shrugged and humored her, walking next to the slide. Instead of climbing up, he simply jumped, his muscles propelling him to the top of the slide, where he sat down next to Rinoa.

They sat there for a while looking off into the broken landscape of Sector Six, or to the more populated region north of it, the region of the slums referred to as "Wall Market," where anything and everything was sold.

"What rank were you?" Rinoa asked, jolting Squall. He glanced to her, and shrugged.

"I was . . . " Squall thought about that for a moment. What rank had he been in SeeD? He thought about it, but immediately his mind flashed back to his last mission, and he killed that line of thought before the painful memories could return.

"I don't want to talk about it," he muttered, drawing a quizzical eye from Rinoa.

"What's wrong?" she asked, and Squall shook his head.

"Bad memories," he muttered.

"What was it like in SeeD?" she asked, changing the line of thought.

"It was rough," he replied, thinking back to earlier days. "Training was hard. They taught us everything that could possibly relate to combat. There was a lot of discipline, a lot of pain, but the results showed." Rinoa nodded.

"You're so cool and in control," she replied. "Just like him."

"'Him'?" Squall asked.

"My first boyfriend," she replied with a nostalgic smile. "He was in SeeD too. I remember from last summer. I was sixteen, lots of fond memories."

"You still together?" Squall asked, and Rinoa shook her head, laughing.

"I wouldn't have offered you a date if I was," she replied. "He disappeared a year ago, on a mission."

"Who was he?" Squall asked. "Maybe I knew him."

"Seifer Almasy," Rinoa said, looking up at the plate. Squall almost fell off the top of the slide in surprise.

"Seifer?" he muttered in shock.

"I take it you know him," Rinoa replied, and Squall nodded, his expression a mixture of both respect and anger.

"We trained together," Squall explained. "The two best fighters in our unit, probably the best in all of SeeD. We were also competitors." Squall traced a finger down the scar between his eyes. "I got this just over a year ago while were practicing. It was just before the mission where I left Shinra."

"Were you friends?" she asked, and Squall shrugged.

"We weren't enemies," he replied. "A lot of people would think we were just by looking at us, but to us, it was just a game. We were just two soldiers trying to outdo each other. We never gave an inch of ground to each other, and we fought a lot . . . mostly out of pride. We'd never let the other gain anything without fighting over it."

"Hmm," Rinoa murmured, looking down. Squall sat with her for a long while, both going over their memories of Seifer. Squall recalled the ring of gunblade on gunblade, the tearing pain across his face as Seifer had marked him . . . and the satisfyingly shocked look as Seifer himself had his own face sliced open. Squall supposed it was their final parting mementos, as after the mission, he had never seen Seifer again.

The gate behind them suddenly thundered open, jolting both of them out of their reverie. He looked back behind them to the gate from Sector Seven as it widened, then frowned as someone stepped through. Squall caught a glimpse of golden hair, and then jumped to his feet before leaping off the top of the slide.

"Quistis!" he called, and the blonde woman looked up at him, her mouth widening in shock.

"Squall?" she replied, stepping all the way through the gate.

"What are you doing here?" they both asked at the same time. Both paused for a second, before Quistis spoke.

"I thought you were dead!" Squall shrugged.

"Not yet," he replied. "I was lucky with where I fell. What about you? All of you made it back safely?" Quistis nodded.

"Zell said something about starting a search for your body," she said with a smile. "He said he'd recover it even if he had to scrape it off someone's rooftop. I'm really glad you're safe." Quistis paused, looking past Squall. He looked in that direction to see Rinoa running over. "Who's that?"

"Rinoa," Squall replied. "I met her after my fall. I helped her hide from Shinra, and she helped me get this far. I was on the way back to link up with you."

"Hi!" Rinoa said as she reached them. "I'm guessing you're Quistis?"

"Yes," she replied with a nod. She extended a hand "You're Rinoa. Squall told me that you were dodging Shinra."

"Yeah," Rinoa replied, taking the hand. "Been doing it for a while."

"Quistis, what are you doing out here?" Squall asked. "Sector Six isn't exactly the safest place for you, if its still what I remember."

"I know, Zell warned me about it," Quistis said with another nod. "That's why I'm here. There was this creepy-looking guy hanging around the bar when we got back. Zell had a talk with him and managed to squeeze out that he was some spy working for a crook named Don Corneo."

"Corneo?" Squall and Rinoa both echoed, with the same tone of disgust. They both knew the name, but from different sources. Corneo was a fat slob, a criminal bastard who thrived in the slums making a profit off numerous criminal activities; the most prominent of which was organized prostitution. Shinra used him as eyes in the slums, but made no secret of the fact that his extensive spying network was the only reason he was still alive. Corneo's business was too vile for even a greedy corporation like Shinra to tolerate. Squall had often heard rumors going around that the higher-ups of Shinra were growing tired of dealing with the Don and would off him sooner or later, often over the most trivial of indiscretions.

"I wonder what the Don wants with AVALANCHE?" Squall muttered, and Quistis nodded at the grim possibility.

"That's why I'm here," Quistis explained. "I was going to look into why the Don was looking into us. I'm hoping its just probing for information he can sell to Shinra, but if Shinra's ordered him to dig us up, we may already be in trouble."

"Then let's go squeeze it out of him," Squall said, and Quistis nodded. Behind them, Rinoa winced, looking at Squall's gunblade. She wondered which would be worse for the Don, failing Shinra and bringing their wrath down on his head, or having Squall "extract" information out of him.


	6. The Battle for Sector Seven

_Chapter 5: The Battle for Sector Seven_

Locating Don Corneo's mansion was easy. Obviously, the majority of the ordinary people in Sector Six's Wall Market did not know precisely where to find Corneo. Finding the men who worked for him would have been a problem, except that Squall, Quistis, and Rinoa already knew what business Corneo trafficked in.

Brothels were a bit too common in Wall Market, a section of the city that already reeked with the smell of trade. Anything and everything was sold around here, Squall saw, heard, and smelled. He passed a weapons shop that reeked of gunpowder and firearms cleaning fluid, heard the hawking shouts of shameless vendors displaying their wares in the most blatant manners imaginable, and could easily see the hundreds of neon, painted, and otherwise decorated signs outside every stall and establishment.

The sheer amount of ultraviolet light given off by the lamps in this area gave the region a shine that compared with daylight, and at some point, someone must have dropped or sown grass seed around the region, as a thick, short carpet of grass had sprung up throughout Wall Market.

Squall unobtrusively approached various people throughout the massive market and asked the same general question: where could he find the nearest brothel? He wasn't embarrassed to be asking, unlike many men who passed through. In fact, he made it seem almost businesslike. The ex-SeeD soon enough found one of the operations just beyond a small restaurant, and turned back to the women.

"I'll go get what we need," he told them, and they nodded. Judging by the already lecherous crowd of men outside the brothel, they didn't want to get any closer anyway. Squall forged ahead, steeling himself as he moved through the crowd. Several men gave him nasty looks as he shouldered them aside, but a quick glare that promised a painful death was enough to put them back and let the small but very dangerous man past.

Squall approached the bouncer outside the brightly-lit brothel. The building was painted a cheery yellow, with numerous bright neon signs outside proclaiming it to be the "Honey Bee Inn." The bright lights reflecting in Squall's glowing eyes, he approached the man out front, his face impassive, revealing nothing.

"I need to speak with the Don," Squall stated. "Where can I find him?"

"Corneo?" the huge, dark-skinned bouncer asked, laughing. Squall noticed he wore a lot of jewelry, and half his teeth were plated in gold. "The Don don't like men. Whachoo want with him?"

"Business," Squall replied.

"You don't look like a 'supplier,' man," the bouncer replied with another half-golden grin.

"I'm not," Squall responded evenly. He narrowed his eyes. "I have business. Where can I find him? It's in everyone's best interests that I know."

"Look, kid," the bouncer replied, poking a finger into Squall's chest. "If you got business with the Don, you gotta show me your merchandise, got me? Then I can tell you where the boss is."

Squall looked down at the finger, then up to the bouncer. An instant later, Squall's left hand was tightly closed over the bouncer's wrist, and with a quick twist and movement of his arm, the ex-SeeD had the bouncer on his knees, hand twisted painfully behind his back. With his other hand, Squall drew one of his knives and put it to the bouncer's throat.

"If you want my merchandise, you can have it," Squall whispered quietly, his voice like the cold words of death itself. "Shinra doesn't like it when their messengers are taunted."

"Shinra!" the bouncer cried, suddenly going very still. "Umm, well, I'm sorry, man, I didn't know you were-"

"Shut up," Squall replied, his tone deathly calm, which made it even more frightening. "You think I'm stupid? Everyone knows members of SeeD have glowing eyes. It's obvious you knew I was with Shinra, and the company does not enjoy being mocked. We consider it an insult to our pride." Squall pressed the blade tighter, a thin trickle of blood flowing from a small cut in the bouncer's neck.

"And we don't like insults."

"Okay! I'll talk! I'm sorry!"

"Yes, you are sorry," Squall answered evenly. "You're a sorry waste of oxygen, and the only way I won't kill you and write you off as launching an unprovoked attack against a member of SeeD is if you tell me, right now, where to find Don Corneo."

Twenty minutes later, Squall, along with Quistis and Rinoa, had crossed through Wall Market to the north, to the site of Don Corneo's mansion. And what a sight it was.

"Good Hyne, what is wrong with this guy?" Rinoa muttered, and Squall and Quistis were forced to agree. The outside of the mansion could best be described as the worst case of bad taste imaginable, featuring strings of eye-hurtingly bright neon lights illuminating cartloads of random artifacts and objects from around the world. Why the Don would even bother to put these things outside where they were easily stealable was beyond the trio's understanding, but apparently the sheer hideousness of most of the objects (not to mention the Don reputation) kept people from just picking up the items and carrying them off. Neon signs, graffiti, random statues and art objects, and more littered the grounds leading up to the garishly decorated house of Corneo.

A single man who carried an assault rifle slung over his shoulder stood outside Corneo's mansion. The figure glanced over the group and then looked to Squall.

"The Don's busy," the man quickly explained, glancing to the women. "Any business you want to conduct with him concerning sales will have to be carried out later." Squall narrowed his eyes, while the reactions from behind him were more visible, both Quistis and Rinoa immediately angered over the guard's assumption that they were prostitutes.

"We're not here on that kind of business," Squall replied. "We need to see the Don for different reasons."

"Sorry, can't let you in without the Don's approval," the guard responded. "I may be able to let the ladies in, Don Corneo may be interested in them, and even if he isn't, the guys certainly would." The man's grin was sickening as he looked back over the two women.

"We don't have time for this," Squall muttered, drawing the Revolver.

Three seconds later, the guard outside became the door opener, his body smashing through the entrance and blasting Corneo's huge wooden doors into kindling. Squall stepped over his unconscious body, the Revolver drawn and readied by his side. A single man stood in their way, brandishing a sub-machinegun that also featured a long bayonet on the end, but he wasn't the first thing the ex-SeeD, nor Rinoa or Quistis, focused on.

The outside of the house was badly decorated. The inside of the house was a monument to sheer sickening design. Opposing colors shined through bright neon lights, even more eye-hurting than the ones outside. The inside of the building was painted in garish colors, the expensive paneled wood transformed into hideous decoration. The lower level of the house was occupied by the main hallway, which included a staircase leading up to the right to a balcony ringing the entry hallway. Several doors were spaced along this balcony, including one massive, gaudily designed pair of double doors, directly above which was positioned a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. From somewhere inside the mansion, some godawful rap music was playing, seeming to have been custom-composed for the mansion as the verbal equivalent of the visual decadence inside the home.

"What the hell's going on?" came a shout from beyond the double doors above, which flew open. "Kotch! What's happening?" Out of the doors above appeared a man who could only have been Don Corneo himself. No one else could have designed this mansion, except the huge, fat slob of a man clad in what seemed to be almost a mockery of royal purple robes. Corneo's eyes were wide with shock, the cheap cigar he was smoking almost falling out of his mouth. Squall focused on the man's head, amazed to see a solid gold crown on top of the Don's head, and what seemed to be almost a mile of gold and silver necklaces around his neck. The Don's fingers and hands shone with gems and gold as he put his hands on the railing, shocked to see the intruders and his ruined door.

"My door!" the Don screamed, face turning red. "I liked that door! I really did! Kotch, what in the holy hell is going on here?"

"Not sure, sir!" replied the man standing in front of the intruders, now brandishing his sub-machinegun, as obviously confused as his boss.

"Don Corneo," Quistis said, stepping over the kindling that had once been the door. "We're here to ask you some questions."

"Are you . . . are you with Shinra?" Corneo asked, his voice quavering in fear. Quistis shook her head.

"No, we're with AVALANCHE," she replied.

"Oh, well then!" Corneo replied, his courage returning. "I was worried for a second. Skotch!"

The door nearest to the stairs burst open, and another man, clad in a brown tank top and black pants, rushed out, brandishing another one of the bayonetted sub-machineguns. Behind Corneo's goon came a half-dozen similarly attired men, wielding the same weapons.

"Yeah, boss?" Skotch growled. Corneo pointed down at the trio of intruders.

"Kill those bastards!" Corneo growled, but then paused, grinning. "Wait, wait, second thought." He looked down at Quistis and Rinoa in a way that could best be described as skin-crawling. "Just maim the women. Kill the girlie man!"

"Right, boss!" Skotch responded, spinning toward Squall. "Open fire, boys!"

The order wasn't even out of Skotch's mouth, and squall was already moving. By the time the thug had shouted "Fire!" Squall was already face to face with a startled Kotch, gunblade snatching up and catching the sub-machinegun by its bayonet and throwing it out wide to the ex-SeeD's left. Skotch's men were raising their weapons at the ex-SeeD when he was dancing around behind Kotch, the startled thug just barely begining to react to the lightning fast assault as Squall moved behind him, his left hand grasping Kotch's left arm and spinning him around.

The men on the balcony opened fire on Squall, and Squall spun Kotch into their path, the man becoming an instant human shield for the moment Squall needed. A faint half-dome of purple light formed before Squall, stretching from the top of his head to his knees, a short-term, mobile barrier formed of magic.

Then, Squall leaped, his enhanced muscles taking him up to the level of the balcony and just over the wooden railing to land almost right next to the suddenly terrified Don. Corneo shrieked and dove through his gaudy doorway, and before Squall could pursue Skotch and his men spun their weapons toward the ex-SeeD. With the tight quarters on the balcony, only the lead goon and one of his subordinates could get good shots at the ex-SeeD, however, and the rest quickly found danger in the two women below, whom they had ignored.

Two bolts, one of lightning and one of metal, startled Corneo's soldiers (and killed two of them outright) as Rinoa and Quistis opened up on the tightly clustered squad. One man lay collapsed on the floor, a crossbow bolt from Rinoa still quivering in his chest, while the other had pitched over the railing and lay dead, chest burned by the impact of electrical magic. Two of the survivors turned toward the women, but recalling the Don's orders, held their fire, instead charging down the stairs. They reached the foot of the stairs and rushed toward Quistis and Rinoa, intending to use their bayonets to disable them.

Skotch and his subordinate opened fire on Squall, but their bullets merely bounced of a dome-shaped semicircle that flared into existence directly in front of Squall. The magical dome of defensive magic shone brightly, and Squall charged the group of Corneo's soldiers immediately, realizing the shield wouldn't hold forever under the barrage.

Skotch, thinking quickly, pushed one of his remaining subordinates in front of him and then hopped up on the railing of the balcony. Skotch and his two men then rushed to meet Squall, leading with their bayonets thrusting. The barrier deflected Skotch's strike, though the magical shield had absorbed the last hit it could take and collapsed under the blow. However, the barrier had bought Squall all the time he needed, as he shot forward with his gunblade. The blade of the Revolver intercepted one of the Corneo guards' strikes, and Squall turned the man's bayonet around to catch and deflect the second bayonet from his comrade. The Revolver snapped into the opening presented by the skilled deflection, and bit hard into the chest of the soldier whose blade Squall had deflected.

Kotch reared back for a second swing when Squall spun toward the guard and then dove forward, crashing against the man's legs and taking him off the balcony. The second soldier, still confused by his comrade's sudden death, hesitated before pursuing the falling ex-SeeD.

The two men attacking Quistis and Rinoa split up, closing rapidly with their respective targets. The man approaching Quistis moved more cautiously, while the one attacking Rinoa rushed at her, trying to get at her before she could fit another bolt into her weapon.

The first man came forward with a quick, cautious thrust, but Quistis' rante shot up into the bayonet's path, the sickle blade knocking the weapon aside long before it even neared her body. Quistis snapped the whip a second time, this time downward, the chain entangling the submachinegun. She flicked her wrist and the weapon was snatched out of the soldier's hand. The man fell back a step, and grabbed for a pistol at his belt, Corneo's orders be damned, but another snap of the rante's handle sent the blade slicing up through the man's chest, ripping him open from his left waist to his right shoulder.

The soldier rushing toward Rinoa knew he'd be able to get to her before she could fit a second crossbow bolt, and she knew it. So instead of trying to use the crossbow, Rinoa reached behind her, beneath her blue duster, and drew out a small rod, about two feet in length. She tapped a button on the rod as the soldier came in, and the rod instantly extended into a quarterstaff made of mythril, a light and extremely durable metal, which she whipped around in front of herself. The upper tip of the staff deflected the thrusting bayonet, and before the thug could respond to the surprising manuever, Rinoa swept the staff's lower end up and across, smashing it across the man's face. Two more quick alternating strikes with the staff's opposite heads followed, and Rinoa quickly spun around, gripping her staff with both hands. As she came around, she smashed the staff across as hard as possible into the stunned guard's head. The impact was vicious enough to flip the man halfway over, knocking him out cold.

Squall hit the ground floor hard, though Skotch took the brunt of the damage for the ex-SeeD. The last of Corneo's goons, however, was chasing him down to the ground floor, landing right behind the ex-SeeD. The man thrust at Squall even as he rose. But Squall was already blocking, the Revolver shooting across and intercepting the hit beneath the bayonet. Squall then spun his gunblade up and over, forcing the bayonet up and over as well, and then down into the floor. Squall's left hand shot down in the middle of the maneuver, moving to his belt and drawing one of his knives. Grasping the blade in an overhand grip, Squall stabbed the weapon up into the Corneo soldier's neck even as the man's weapon hit the floor.

Skotch was just recovering from the impact with the floor when he looked up, seeing Squall towering over him. The ex-SeeD spun back to the soldier even as the man was raising his sub-machinegun, and Squall flipped the Revolver over in his hands into another overhand grip. He jammed the blade down, the razor tip slicing down through Skotch's chest.

Squall extracted his blade, and a quick check showed Quistis and Rinoa were fine, their opponents disposed of just as easily. He glanced at Rinoa's staff, and raised a quizzical eyebrow, but asked no questions, despite his surprise at her proficiency as a warrior.

"The Don's waiting," Squall stated, and bounded up the stairs. He approached the double doors and kicked them in, the wood splintering with a satisfying crunch. Squall strode into the office, just as loudly and terribly decorated as the main hall, and shook his head, moving to the back of the room, where a heavy curtain was draped. A quick slice of his gunblade chopped the fabric out of the way, and beyond was another horribly designed room, this one Corneo's bedroom. The Don was cowering on his bed, the covers pulled over his head. Squall shook his head at the man's cowardice and crossed the room.

"Time to answer some questions," Squall growled, yanking the covers off the fat slob. Corneo fell back, terrified, his crown slipping off his head.

"Why are you so interested in AVALANCHE?" Quistis demanded, crossing her arms.

"Tell us," Squall growled, snapping open his gunblade's chambers, before closing them again, a pointed reminder. He then leveled the weapon at Corneo's crotch. "Or I'll blast it off." Corneo's scream was immediate and his fear was absolute as he clutched his groin protectively.

"I can't tell you! They'll kill me!" the Don cried, waving his hands desperately.

"Who?" Quistis demanded. "Tell us," she began, then looked down at Corneo's pants. She uncoiled her whip, fingering the blade. "Or else I'll slice it off."

"It was Heidegger!" Corneo screamed, once more clutching his privates defensively. "Heidegger, general of the Shinra army! He was wanting me to confirm where AVALANCHE was based, so they could . . . . " Corneo slapped a hand over his mouth, realizing he was letting important information slip.

"What are they planning?" Rinoa demanded, pointing her staff at Corneo. "Tell us, or I'll crush it."

Squall glanced at her, surprised, but glad she had so quickly hopped into the interrogation game.

"_Eek!_" Corneo yelped, once more shielding his nether regions. "They're gonna crush AVALANCHE! Literally!"

"Literally?" Squall echoed, not liking the sound of that at all.

"They're gonna blow the support pillar, and the plate will come down and smash the entire slum flat!" Corneo continued.

"_WHAT?_" Quistis exclaimed, her eyes widening in shock. Rinoa and Squall echoed her sentiment an instant later, though not as loudly.

"I'm just glad they're based in Sector Seven, not in Six!" Corneo added. "They say that AVALANCHE is going to be blamed too! And that the operation was going to start as soon as they got confirmation from me."

"Have they?" Squall growled, and Corneo fell back. Squall raised his gunblade, and the look in his shining eyes was all Corneo need to _know_ Squall would cut off his privates if he didn't answer.

" . . . yeah," Corneo managed to mutter quietly. "They got confirmation about a half hour before you guys got here."

"We have to go!" Quistis shouted, and Squall nodded. He turned to step away, but then spun, heaving his gunblade like a spear. The blade dug into the wood just inches from Corneo's hand, which was reaching for a lever on beside his bed. The Don screamed and fell back, once more terrified as Squall crossed the bedroom and tore his blade free. He glanced around the room, scanning for a trap of some sort, but saw nothing, except an oddly plain-looking floor mat where he had been standing. Nodding, Squall roughly grabbed the Don by his robes and threw him onto the floor mat with one hand.

"Step away," he quickly told Quistis and Rinoa, and they did so, moving completely out of the room. Squall grabbed the lever Corneo was reaching for, and the Don scrambled to his feet.

"_NOO-!_" he began to say as Squall flicked the lever. The covering mat, and the massive slob standing on it, fell down, through a cleverly concealed trap door. The Don's denial echoed throughout the tunnel as he fell down. A couple of seconds later, Squall heard a splash as the Don hit water somewhere far below, and then the man cursing.

"Good riddance," Rinoa muttered, and Squall nodded.

"He's not dead," Squall answered as he hopped over the secret trapdoor. "That hidden door probably leads down to the sewers. But he's out of the game for a while, at least."

"We have to hurry!" Quistis said, and Squall nodded. They ran out of Corneo's ruined mansion and toward Sector Seven. Time had just become the most precious thing in the world.

* * *

Alexander Shinra sat back in his chair, cigar smoking in his mouth, as he regarded the video screen in front of him, set into his massive steel desk, and the young blonde man displayed on one of the dozens of video screens here, in the nexus of his network that spanned the entire globe.

"Father, this is an insane plan," Rufus Shinra, Alexander's only son, stated. "Dropping Sector Seven to kill a small band of rebels? Do you have any idea how much this will cost?"

"Very much so," Alexander replied, puffing his cigar. "The costs are worth the extensive benefits we will reap. Midgar will know the true terror that these rebels can inflict, especially considering we're blaming this on them. We've even arranged to let the information slip, so that AVALANCHE will desperately try to save Sector Seven from this catastrophe. Sadly, the rebels were able to destroy the platform through insanely suicidal means. This will be precedent to tighten our control over the slums and increase Mako rates to ensure such a disaster will never happen again."

"One seventh of our Midgar income will be lost!" Rufus responded. "That's almost the equivalent of all of Junon! How can you make up for that?"

"Rufus, you know we've been searching for someone very special, correct?" Alexander said, seeming to change the subject.

"A very special person?" Rufus asked, his tone indicating that he knew just how special this person was. Alexander nodded.

"Neo-Midgar will soon be a reality, son," Alexander said, with a predatorial smile. "And once that has been realized, even Midgar will be nothing more than a mere bauble in our crown."

"I see," Rufus muttered, nodding.

"After AVALANCHE is . . . crushed," Alexander said with a widening grin. "No one will dare oppose us, the citizenry of Midgar will be even more loyal to us, and we will tighten our control and profits. Nothing but good will come out of this."

"Still, it seems such a waste, Father," Rufus complained.

"Allow me to handle business here in Midgar," Alexander replied. "You've still got issues in Junon, correct?"

Rufus nodded reluctantly, and the video screen went blank. Shinra stood, puffing his cigar again, as a massive, bearded man strode into the room, dressed in the green uniform denoting the officers of the Shinra military. The man lumbered into the office, his right breast gleaming with all the medals and commendations he had earned in his career.

"The assault's already underway, Mr. President," Heidegger, the head of the Shinra armed forces and one of the three most powerful people in the world, reported.

"What did you send?" Shinra asked, and Heidegger laughed, a thundering sound.

"Two squads of paratroopers, a pair of gunships, and a couple of squads of ground troopers to secure the staircase," Heidegger reported. "Those are just cannon fodder to secure the platform itself, so the Turks can move in and plant the actual bomb. I've already got condolences for their families ready."

"The rescue crews are standing by?" Shinra asked, and Heidegger nodded.

"Ready to see what survivors they can pull out of the catastrophe AVALANCHE has inflicted," Heidegger answered with another bout of laughter. Shinra joined in the mirth. He crossed his massive office on the top floor of the huge Shinra skyscraper and looked out over the metropolis, continuing to laugh quietly to himself, all the while puffing on his cigar. Things were looking up.

* * *

Within half an hour they had passed through Wall Market and beyond, reaching the gate to Sector Seven. From that point, they made their way through the trash mounds of Sector Seven at breakneck speeds, running as fast as they could. They took heart in the fact that Sector Seven still stood, but the trio knew that this wouldn't last forever.

Within ten minutes of entering the sector, Squall, Quistis, and Rinoa had come into sight of the pillar, though the immediate image of the pillar did nothing to assure them of Sector Seven's safety. They could see what looked to be Shinra helicopter gunships circling the structure, flashes of gunfire, and the answering bursts of magic.

"They've already started!" Quistis shouted, and the trio put on more speed. They bounded over random piles of garbage and jutting pieces of equipment, and at one point cut clear over a trash mound that was too wide to go around. The pillar and its accompanying platform came into sight ahead, and outside the structure was a large crowd, gathered to watch the spectacle. Even as they watched, one of the helicopters exploded, the burning wreckage plunging to the barren slum floor mere meters from the base of the pillar. Score one for AVALANCHE.

The trio quickly reached the crowd and pushed through, Squall taking the lead and shoving people out of the way. Soon he had reached the front of the crowd, Quistis and Rinoa with him. Directly in front of them they could see Xu, her leg mostly healed, trying to help Watts walk. The wounded rebel's shirt was soaked with blood, but he clutched his gun tightly as he hung by Xu's shoulder.

"Quistis," Watts muttered, smiling. "Good to see you, ma'am."

"Watts!" Quistis cried, rushing over to him.

"We tried," Xu explained as quickly as she could, helping Quistis lay the wounded rebel out on the ground. "Shinra's helicopters are dropping troops all on the top. Zone and Zell are up there fighting as hard as they can."

"We have to go to them," Quistis said quickly. "They're planning to destroy the pillar!"

"What?" Xu exclaimed, and Squall nodded.

"Evacuate everyone from the sector," he ordered quickly. He spun toward the crowd. "Everyone, Shinra is going to drop the pillar and crush Sector Seven!" There were shocked gasps from the crowd, and he pointed toward the nearby slum village. "Get everyone out of the sector as soon as possible! We'll try to stop them!" He turned to Xu and Rinoa, who was crouching over Watts. The warm, vibrant wind seemed to wash over the whole group, and Watts' wounds seemed to mend immediately, and the rebel sat up, confused by the ebbing pain.

"Xu, Rinoa, Watts, help get everyone out of the sector. Lead them to Wall Market or Sector Five. Just get them out before that plate comes down."

"What about you?" Rinoa asked, and Squall shook his head, before drawing his gunblade.

"We'll keep them busy and buy you all some time," he replied, and Quistis nodded. "Let's go!"

Quistis uncoiled her rante and the two ran for the staircase leading up to the platform. Squall took the lead as he bounded up the metal steps, and they managed to climb several flights without encountering any trouble. Up above the echoing sounds of gunfire and flashing magic could be heard more clearly, and Squall made out several teams of paratrooper commandos circling the structure, along with a single helicopter gunship. A squad of blue-clad Shinra regulars were about three or four flights down from the platform, Zone seeming to be holding them off single-handedly. Up top, Zell was leaping around like a madman, launching flying kicks and brutal punches that left broken corpses of any paratroopers who ventured too close.

However, their position was very tentative, the only thing keeping the gunship from entering the fray completely being the presence of the paratroopers who were trying to overwhelm Zell. Zone was valiantly holding on, but he was taking cover more than returning fire as the Shinra soldiers steadily advanced up the stairs. Still, a number of corpses sprawled along the metal steps testified to a fierce defense he had mounted.

"We have to hurry!" Quistis shouted below, and Squall put on more speed, charging up the steps with everything he could put out.

Up above, Zell launched another blast of magic, and one of the paratroopers suddenly fell, out of control as his propeller failed him. The man descended rapidly, until he managed to catch himself on a railing a couple levels above Squall and Qusitis. The paratrooper spotted the ascending pair quickly enough, and drew his machine pistol, leveling it at them.

"Hold it right there!" he ordered. "This area is restricted to Shinra personnel only-"

Whatever the rest of his order was, it never got out as a fireball erupted from Squall's hand, blasting the man and hurling him over the railing. Squall and Quistis continued their ascent.

Apparently, their actions weren't taken very well, as a duo of paratroopers suddenly dropped from the platform above, descending aggressively with machine pistols drawn. They split up, taking opposite sides of the platform, and as soon as they came into sight of Squall and Quistis, they opened fire with their weapons.

Squall saw them coming long before they opened fire, and had already cast a preparatory spell over Quistis. He didn't have time to cast one over himself, and as the bullets started flying, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and brace himself against the incoming streams of gunfire. Streams of hot metal bounced off Quistis' intervening barrier, and one cut into Squall's flank, drawing blood along his side. The wound wasn't too severe, however, and the ex-SeeD countered several times over with a bolt of electrical magic that blasted the offending paratrooper out of the sky.

Squall ran ahead, and the remaining paratrooper took aim at him, ignoring the protected Quistis. That was a mistake, for while he was aiming at the more vulnerable target, Quistis sighted the paratrooper. A green flare was his only warning, and then he was dead as a fireball blew him out of the sky.

Up above, the battle was still going badly, though the intervention of Squall and Quistis was drawing Shinra's attention. The helicopter gunship suddenly pulled away, giving Zell some much needed breathing room, and descended, targeting the newcomers.

Just below the platform, Zone tossed the last grenade he was carrying, blasting a pair of Shinra troops off the stairs. He then popped out from behind cover and sent a quick burst down that claimed another Shinra trooper. Only a few members of the squad remained, but they continued to advance and return fire at the rebel. There was a quick exchange of gunfire as both a Shinra soldier and Zone leaned out of cover at the same moment, and both men fell back. The Shinra soldier toppled over the railing, wounded fatally, while Zone fell back against the railing, pressing his sub-machinegun to a badly wounded left arm, blood staining his blue jacket. Below, the trio of surviving Shinra soldiers advanced.

"Chopper!" Squall warned Quistis as the helicopter descended. It was an assault helicopter, outfitted with a pair of machineguns and missile launchers on wings, and from his experience Squall knew both were very deadly weapon systems.

"Electrical magic!" Quistis quickly ordered, and Squall nodded. Before the gunship had even begun to track its weapons toward the pair, a green flare heralded a pair of electrical bolts that took the helicopter in its nose, scrambling the electronics. The gunship fell back briefly, circling, its targeting systems disabled momentarily by the electric discharge. Squall and Quistis continued to move up, feet pounding on the metal steps.

The pilot must have recovered his targeting systems a moment later, as the hovering death machine came back in, its machineguns tracking the pair.

"Split!" Squall ordered, turning and running down the stairs. Quistis bounded up, and his separating opponents must have momentarily confused the helicopter's pilot. Squall took advantage of that momentary confusion, and another blast of electrical magic splashed against the nose of the helicopter.

Quistis rushed up the steps, positioning herself above the helicopter, and pointed a hand down at the rotors. Her wrist flared green once more, and another bolt of electricity lanced down, striking the gunship's rotors.

Squall's electrical bolt wreaked havoc on the targeting systems, but this bolt momentarily short-circuited the rotors, causing them to cease working. Since the rotors were essential to the continued flying of the helicopter, this resulted in the gunship taking a very quick and very destructive drop to the slum floor. The ensuing explosion a few seconds later only helped to enunciate that fact.

Squall and Quistis continued on, bounding up the flights of steps. They were almost to the top now, the trio of surviving Shinra soldiers just a single flight above them, firing up at Zone's position. The AVALANCHE member was still alive, but pinned down by the constant fire, unable to return anything back to the Shinra troops. Realizing this, one trooper remained back and covered his comrades, who bounded up the stairs.

That soldier never even realized he was doomed until Squall cut him down and ran on up the stairs, past his collapsing body, Quistis one step behind.

The remaining two soldiers rounded the last flight of stairs and leveled their weapons at Zone. One of the men chuckled as the wounded rebel tried to raise his rifle, and the soldier fired, the burst tearing into Zone's right arm. The sub-machinegun clattered down the metal steps, and the soldier who had fired advanced toward the helpless Zone. The second soldier laughed as well, waiting for his friend to deal the coup de grace.

He should have kept his eyes down below, as then he might have seen the green flare of a materia orb in time to at least realize his doom. Quistis' fireball struck him dead center in the chest and hurled him over the railing before the soldier even knew he was hit.

The first soldier paused at the flash of light and roar of the fireball's explosion, and spun around in time to see a teenager with glowing eyes leap over the railing right behind him. Squall sliced across with his gunblade, throwing the man's assault rifle out wide to the right, then stepped around to the soldier's left too quickly to follow. Before the Shinra soldier could even move in response to the lightning-fast move, Squall was behind him and grabbing the chin of his helmet. The ex-SeeD pulled back with that hand hard, revealing the vulnerable neck, and his gunblade drew across the soldier's throat, slicing it open. Squall then pushed the dying man forward, and he tumbled down the steps, his lifeblood pouring out.

Quistis stepped past the dying man, and she and Squall stopped at where Zone lay, arms bleeding severely.

"Sorry," he offered with a rueful chuckle. "Looks like I screwed up."

"You didn't," Quistis offered with a shake of her head. Her wrist flared green once more, and white energy played over the wounded rebel's body. The bleeding lessened somewhat, and Zone sighed as the pain seemed to be equally relieved.

Up above, another burst of gunfire sounded, and all three looked up.

"Go!" Zone shouted tot he two of them. "Forget about me! Zell's up there by himself, you gotta help him! We gotta stop whatever Shinra's going to do!"

"They're going to drop the plate!" Qusitis replied, and Zone's eyes widened.

"Then go!" he shouted quickly, trying to wave his arms.

"Quistis, stay with him," Squall said quickly. "Patch up Zone and then both of you get up there. I'll go help Zell, but hurry! I think we may need you two up there soon."

"What do you mean?" Quistis asked, but Squall was already bounding up the stairs.

"This is just a prelude!" he answered over his shoulder. "The real attack's still coming!"

Squall continued running up the steps, rounding the last flight of stairs and reaching the central platform. Up here, he could see a large central console, big enough to hide behind, and a wide wire mesh platform with metal railings. Even as he reached the top, Zell roared a battlecry and launched a double kick against one of the remaining paratroopers, the soldier smashing hard into the central console. The kick was only the beginning of Zell's attack routine, as he was pushing off the paratrooper with that very kick, flying backward into the air toward the last remaining soldier, who was still airborne. Zell spun toward that soldier in mid-air, planting a powerful spinning kick that blasted into the man's ribcage, shattering it. The rib bones became skewers that impaled the soldier's internal organs, and the man himself was blasted away from the platform.

"Zell!" Squall called, running across the platform to where Zell landed easily. The brawler looked up, his eyes widening momentarily, to be replaced by a grin.

"Squall! I knew something little like a high-speed train crash wouldn't kill ya!" The brawler clapped his hands as if to wipe them clean. "Too bad you missed the party, though I'm guessing you were what pulled that gunship off my ass, right?" Squall nodded.

"Quistis is down below with Zone," he reported. "Xu, Watts, and a girl I met named Rinoa are clearing out Sector Seven."

"What for?" Zell asked, looking around the platform. "I'm guessing it has something to do with these guys, right?"

"Shinra's going to blow the pillar," Squall answered grimly, and Zell nodded.

"Figures," he replied. "The moment I saw all the commotion I brought everyone up here. Good thing too."

"Right," Squall nodded. "But it's not over yet. Knowing Shinra, these men were just cannon fodder. The real attack's on the way, and if they're still the same as when I left, that means one thing."

"What?"

"The Turks," Squall replied grimly. Zell looked confused, so Squall elaborated. "Shinra's top secret spy unit. They handle all kinds of dirty jobs, just like this one."

"We'll give 'em a warm reception then," Zell replied, punching his fist into his palm. Moments later, the sounds of another helicopter's approach could be heard, and the pair scanned the area.

"There!" Zell called, pointing past the support pillar. Squall spotted the helicopter, moving prudently behind the pillar to prevent any anti-air attacks with magic. It closed quickly, and swooped around the pillar, passing directly over the platform and beyond within an instant, but not before a pair of forms clad in dark blue dropped out, landing easily on the edge of the platform. Squall and Zell moved forward quickly, getting between the two men and the center of the platform.

Both men were clad in the usual Turk uniform, though one of them wore his jacket open and loose. Zell didn't recognize him, but Squall recalled Reno D'Angelo from yesterday easily enough, and judging by the Turk's smirk, he too recalled Squall.

The second man wore his uniform properly, jacket closed, with sunglasses over his eyes. The man's face was cleanly shaven and totally bald, revealing dark skin. Beneath his uniform the Turk was solidly built, matching Zell in physical fitness and musculature. Two sets of metal plated knuckles adorned his fingerless gloves, similar to Zell's own weapons. Squall recognized the man as well from his days as a SeeD.

"Rudolph King," Squall commented as the man stretched a bit. Rudolph nodded, readjusting his glasses.

"Just Rude," he replied easily, in deep - yet soft - voice. "Squall, heard you were back. Sad to be meeting under the circumstances, but it can't be helped."

"Don't suppose you're just going to get out of our way, now?" Reno asked, tapping a button on his rod. The weapon extended to its full length, its tip crackling with electrical charge.

"Can't do that," Zell replied, sliding into a combat stance. Squall raised the Revolver into a ready guard as Reno rested his baton on his shoulder.

"Too bad, then," Reno replied, grin widening. "Now we get a chance to finish what we started in Sector Five. Rude, take care of Kung-Fu Chicken over there. I've got Squall."

"Hey!" Zell protested the insult, but even then, the Turks were split with Reno, moving toward Zell, while the red-haired Turk approached Squall.

Reno's rod rested easily on the Turk's shoulder, bouncing casually, before suddenly jabbing forward. The Revolver intercepted quickly, snapping up and tossing the rod's thrust aside. Reno brought the rod up and over into a diagonal slice, but Squall easily deflected the swing, and countered with a quick horizontal cleave. Reno hopped back, rod weaving in to intercept the strike, a wide grin on the Turk's face. The rod snapped forward toward Squall's chest, and it was the ex-SeeD's turn to hop back, left hand slapping up against the rod's shaft to knock it aside. Squall punched out with his gunblade, the tip diving at Reno's throat, and the Turk had to leap back, spinning completely around, his rod smacking the gunblade away before it could dig in.

Zell grinned as Rude stepped forward, the Turk's face locked into an impassive mask as he stepped into a guard, left foot forward, hands raised. Zell took the initiative, taking one quick step forward and launching a high side kick, apparently aimed at Rude's face, but pullign back and jabbing lower at his chest. Rude snapped a hand up, seeign through the feint and throwing aside the kick with his left forearm. Zell reacted quickly, spinning the kicking leg down and leaping up with his right leg, coming around an a mid-air spin-kick that jabbed down at Rude's chest. Rude brought both of his hands together, intercepting and stopping the shooting foot, and as Zell landed on the platform, the Turk countered. Rude stepped forward, one fist jabbing for Zell's chest, which Zell caught in his right hand, throwing the hit out wide. Zell's left fist crossed over his blocking right arm, shooting forward at Rude's face, but the Turk used his other hand to deflect that hit as well. Beneath the interweaving hands, however, Zell's left knee suddenly jabbed forward at Rude's ribs. Rude raised his own left knee to quickly block, and the Turk's right hand weaved below Zell's hands, chopping into the brawler's ribs in a painful strike. Zell grunted in discomfort, and Rude broke away, spinning low to sweep Zell's legs out from under him. Zell lost his footing and slammed to the metal platform hard.

Reno came out of his desperate spin with another jab, to which Squall responded with a quick, measured parry and a speedy counter with his gunblade. Reno hopped back from the chop, then went right back in, his sparking rod jabbing in a quick succession of short strikes. The Revolver met each thrust easily, and Squall prepared to counter when the Turk simply hopped back, smiling.

"Hate to say this, Squall," Reno replied with a smile. "Looks like this will have to be cut short." Reno's rod flashed, and a shining white light erupted from the rod, diving at Squall. The ex-SeeD rolled aside, but the light tracked him, closing in. Just before it hit him, however, the light exploded into a shimmering multicolored sheet which folded itself up around the ex-SeeD.

"Damn!" Squall shouted, cursing as the multi-colored light became a solid yellow barrier, a four-sided pyramid that trapped the ex-SeeD perfectly within its confines. He didn't even try to break out, knowing that it would be impossible for him to shatter the barrier of energy from the inside. Shinra's energy barrier technology was used for short-term containment of subjects, and it worked very effectively.

On his back, Zell saw Rude raise a fist to jam it down into the brawler's chest. Zell reacted with lightning speed, left leg curling up and catching the descending fist on his foot, while his right leg rose, curling up. Zell twisted to the side, and kicked out with his right leg, the foot slamming into the Turk's chest and hurling him up and away. Zell snapped his body like a whip, hopping back onto his feet.

"Zell!" Squall shouted from inside his barrier. The brawler spotted him and began to run toward the ex-SeeD, but Squall jabbed a finger at Reno, who was even then running toward the central console of the platform, a shaped charge in his hands. The brawler dashed after Reno, but long before he reached the Turk, Reno had placed the charge.

"Mission accomplished!" he shouted triumphantly, spinning toward Zell. The same white light that had struck Squall erupted from Reno's rod at Zell, spearing the brawler and trapping him within another multi-colored sheet of light that quickly resolved itself into another pyramidal prison. The brawler cursed and kicked the inside of the barrier, intending to shatter it through sheer ferocity, but his foot was stopped as thoroughly as if it had met a steel wall.

"Can't break through that," Reno stated simply. "Only way to disable the barrier is to hit it from the outside." The Turk grinned and looked up. "I guess Sector Seven falling down would be enough to break it, but by then it'll be too late. Rude!"

The bald Turk was standing now, and nodded. The helicopter that had dropped them off swung around toward the edge of the platform, and the two Turks hopped aboard, Reno sending Squall a quick salute and smile. Then, the chopper was gone.

"Dammit!" Zell shouted, punching the inside of his prison. He spun back to Squall, intending to ask the SeeD what they should do, but then stopped as he saw Quistis and a fully healed Zone bound up the stairs.

"Quistis!" Zell shouted. "Hurry! Get us out of here! Hit the barrier!" Quistis nodded and snapped her whip at the barrier holding Zell. Zone fired a quick burst at Squall's barrier, directly over the ex-SeeD's head. Both pyramids of light faded, and the group quickly rushed over to the central console. The bomb Reno had set appeared to be a time bomb, but set with an abnormally long timer, over ten minutes. Squall was confused as to why Reno would set a bomb with that long a time limit, but for whatever reason, it would give him more than enough time to disarm it.

"Stand back," Squall ordered, drawing one of his knives. He crouched over the bomb, looking underneath the timer for the detonator. He quickly found it, and spotted several wires running from the timer to the detonator. He prodded forward with one of the knives, poking the wires, when the bomb suddenly beeped. Squall checked the timer, to see the numbers counting down several times faster than normal.

"The hell?" Squall cursed. Any forthcoming answers or speculation were delayed by the sound of another helicopter swooping in. The group spun, expecting the Turks had returned for another round, but were instead surprised to see a single man standing on a platform on the outside of the helicopter, normally used for holding heavy machineguns or missile launchers. He was an older man, clad in the blue uniform of the Turks, with long black hair that reached to his shoulders.

"Tseng!" Squall shouted, recognizing the chief of the Turks organization.

"Squall," Tseng called back, recognizing the ex-SeeD. "I see you've already discovered the safety mechanism we installed on that bomb. Any attempt to disarm it will just make it explode even faster."

"Turn it off!" Zell shouted, but Tseng shook his head.

"Afraid I can't do that," he replied. Zone, beside Zell, growled and leveled his sub-machinegun at the Turk chief.

"Zell said turn it off, slime!" the rebel shouted, but Tseng simply laughed.

"Don't do something so risky, boy," Tseng responded. "Otherwise, I may have to hurt my guest." The Turk reached back into the helicopter, and pulled a girl into view.

"Rinoa!" Squall shouted, and the girl looked up at her name being called.

"You know each other?" Tseng asked, glancing down at his prisoner. "Perhaps you should thank me for letting you see each other one last time."

"Let her go, asshole!" Zell shouted. "Or I'll come up there and tear your spine out!"

"Like I said," Tseng answered easily, disregarding Zell's threat, "I can't. My orders were to find and capture the last remaining Ancient. It's taken us a long time, but I can finally report this to the president." Tseng glanced back inside at something the pilot said, and nodded.

"Well, we're almost out of time," he said with a grin. "The bomb should be going off any moment now, and once that support pillar you're standing on is gone, nothing will stop the plate collapse. Can you escape?" Tseng's smile showed how possible he considered that eventuality as he pushed Rinoa back into the helicopter and the aircraft pulled away as, up above, thundering rumbles could be heard.

"Those jackasses must have set the pillar to collapse up above first!" Zell shouted, looking up at the thick concrete pillar. "We have to get out of here!"

"How?" Quistis asked as the rumbling grew more intense. Squall was scanning the platform, but he already knew that they wouldn't be able to get to the bottom of the platform and out of the sector in time. He realized, more than the others, that they were already dead.

"Hey!" Zone called. "You hear something?"

"Aside from the plate up above about to fall on our heads, no!" Zell replied.

"Not that!" Zone responded. "I thought I head a clanking sound, like metal on metal from somewhere!"

Squall frowned, scanning the pillar again, and stopped. On one of the pillar's railings, near the side that faced Sector Six, a hook attached to a metal cable had connected with the railing. Squall frowned, not knowing where the hook had come from, but as he followed it up, he could see the cable stretched up to the border between the Sector Seven and Sector Six.

"Here!" he called, running to the cable. "We can use this to swing to Sector Six!"

"You sure?" Zell asked, not convinced, but Squall nodded.

"You see any better way?" the ex-SeeD replied as he grabbed the cable. "Everyone, get on!" Quistis, Zone, and Zell grabbed onto the cable, and Squall lifted the hook off the railing. Behind them, something exploded, and Squall leaped. For an instant, he thought he heard the wind screaming in his ear as the flew through the air, but a moment later, realized it was just Zell.

* * *

From his office, classical music echoing throughout the room, Alexander Louis Shinra smiled as he saw one of the sectors of his city suddenly fall, the edges of the sector flaring and exploding as gas lines and Mako pipes were severed suddenly. The entire sector went dark as it fell, tens of thousands of tons of metal, stone, and ceramic dropping down onto the slums below. The impact was felt throughout all of Midgar, and even Shinra perceived a faint tremor running through his office.

He grinned as he imagined the people's reaction to AVALANCHE's latest atrocity, and turned around, heading for the stairs and the Shinra Media Center on one of the lower floors. He had a speech to give.

* * *

"No sir," he whispered, standing on one of the catwalks running beneath Sector Six. "I wasn't able to intervene in the collapse. Things happened too quickly, and I was still trying to follow him in Sector Five."

There was a response, and he nodded, pressing the radio closer into his ear.

"He's alive, as are the rest of AVALANCHE," he assured the man on the other end. "I managed to intervene using a cable between the two sectors. They're in Sector Six now, shaken but otherwise fine."

Another response came over the radio.

"I understand sir," he replied. "Do you want me to expose myself? No? Okay then."

There was a long steam of words from the other end, and the man nodded.

"Very well then, sir. I'll keep a sharp lookout. Goodbye, Mr. President."

* * *

Yes, quite the interesting chapter, no? I had lots of fun with this one.

Anyway, some important notes:

The cross-dressing scene and the sewer/train graveyard were skipped, because, well, I wasn't a big fan of the cross-dressing scene myself, and the train graveyard didn't offer much potential for story development.

Reno and Rude's last names were something I added for flavor. Reno always seemed to be kind of Italian to me, and the name "d'Angelo" seemed to fit him well. And Rude...well, "King" seemed just natural.

Who was the mysterious person at the end? Heh, wouldn't you like to know....

The storyline is heating up!


	7. The Ancient

Warning! Strong language at the begining of this chapter.

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_Chapter 6: The Ancient_

The quartet of survivors rose shakily as debris rained around them, a metallic shower resulting from the annihilation of Sector Seven's slums. Squall was first up, helping Quistis to stand. Zone and Zell rose as well, hacking and coughing as dust settled around them like a malignant fog.

Squall glanced over his shoulders and winced at what he saw behind him. The gate to Sector Seven was simply gone, annihilated totally and utterly. In its stead was a mountain of twisted metal, broken stone, and shattered glass. Chunks of shattered material jutted out like broken bones piercing skin, and Squall could only wonder how many lives were lost in the crush.

"Oh, Hyne," Quistis whispered. Behind her, Zell cursed and pounded the ground, spider-webbing it.

"HYNEDAMN!" Zell screamed. "Motherfuckers! Why? Why the fuck did they have to crush a whole damn city!"

"Zell, calm down," Quistis answered as evenly as she could, even with tears rimming her eyes.

"I don't want to calm down!" Zell replied, running over to the debris and giving a brutal kick. "I want to find those Shinra fucks and stick them in their own damn Mako! Hynedammit!" Zell grabbed a jutting metal bar from the wreckage and swung it around, almost breaking it in half as he smashed it against the mountain of debris, before flinging it aside.

"Zell!" Zone said quickly, grabbing the brawler beneath his arms and pulling him back. "Control yourself!"

"Let go me, dammit!" the brawler exploded, snapping his head back and smashing it into his comrade's face. Zone, dazed, let go of the brawler and backed away. Zell spun, looking almost as if he was going to attack Zone, until Quistis stepped between them.

"Zell!" she shouted, and a moment later, the brawler calmed down, apparently seeing the pain in her eyes. A moment later, Zell let out an inarticulate roar of fury and smashed his fists down into the dirt, sending a small tremor through their surroundings.

"Hynedammit!" he yelled again. "They crushed the whole of Sector Seven just for us? How many people did they kill just to get at us? How many people have to die for us?"

"You saying it's our fault that plate came down?" Zone asked, his own face filled with anguish.

"Hell no!" Zell replied, standing up, his rage beginning to return. "Hell! No! Shinra built those reactors that are killing the planet, Shinra strafed the train, Shinra dropped Sector Seven! It's never been anyone but Shinra! And someone's gotta stop those bastards!" Zell looked around, and spotted Squall facing across Sector Six, toward Sector Five.

"What about you?" he asked, and Squall glanced back, then looked up to the destroyed sector.

"Before this I didn't care anymore about Shinra," Squall replied quietly. "Even after the train, I still hated Shinra for what they did to me and everyone else, but I still only viewed them as an enemy of circumstance." He turned back south. "Now, though, I'm not so sure if I want to ignore them. But one thing I do know," he added, looking up toward the central pillar, and, Zell imagined, the Shinra Building beyond.

"They have Rinoa," he said. "Shinra ruined my life through their meddling, and killed countless people. They have Rinoa, and I'm going to save her, and I'm going to pay them back."

"What?" Zell muttered. "Squall, caring about someone else? Where did this come from?"

"Maybe I'm not the heartless mercenary you think I am," Squall replied, glancing back, and looking pointedly at Quistis. "Maybe there's still part of that boy I once was still inside. But that doesn't matter. I'm going to save Rinoa, for my own reasons. You coming with me?"

"Balls-first into Shinra HQ?" Zell asked. "That sounds nuts, but it's almost crazy enough to work! After what they did to Sector Seven, I'm feeling like mounting old man Shinra's head on my wall!"

"If you're going after Rinoa," Quistis added, "I'm with you!"

"What about you?" Squall asked Zone, who blanched.

"Me? Shinra HQ?" he replied. "Umm, well, I think its suicide, but if you're going to go in, I won't sit out."

"Do us one better, Zone," Zell replied with a grin. "Head into Wall Market and see if you can get us some supplies. I get the feeling we'll need 'em."

"We'll need to head to Sector Five in the meantime," Squall added. "I'm pretty sure Rinoa went there with Xu and Watts. I want to see if they're still alive, and I also want to know more about the Ancients."

"Ancients?" Zell asked, and Quistis nodded.

"Yes," she whispered. "Tseng said something about Rinoa being an Ancient."

"I want some answers," Squall said, thinking back to a man who had called himself one of those, an Ancient. Without another word, Squall set off across Sector Six, Zell and Quistis following him.

Later that day, they crossed into Sector Five, the whole town abuzz with talk about the plate crash. Recorded versions of Shinra's proclamation that AVALANCHE was behind the collapse further enraged Zell, but the brawler tempered his feelings with images of forthcoming revenge.

They soon found Rinoa's house, and entered, only to find themselves momentarily staring down the barrel of Watts' gun. The rebel blushed immediately upon seeing who he was aiming at and stood down.

"Sorry, sir!" he quickly apologized stepping aside. To their right, Xu, who had been hiding on the opposite side of the door, came out of hiding, sheathing her sai.

"Zell, thank Hyne you're still alive," Xu said, relief readily apparent on her face. "When we heard the plate come down, we thought . . . ."

"We were lucky," Zell replied. Behind him, Squall frowned. The ex-SeeD didn't believe that their escape had hinged entirely on luck. That cable hadn't been there before Zone had heard that noise. Squall scanned the room, noting that it looked like there had been a short scuffle that was only just being cleaned up.

"What happened?" Squall demanded, and then noticed that Caraway was stepping out of the kitchen, worry splashed across his face.

"Shinra came here," the former general explained. "Turks and regular soldiers. Xu and Watts tried to fight them, but there were too many. They were going to kill all of us until Rinoa offered to come quietly if they would let us go. They agreed."

"What do they want from her?" Quistis asked. Caraway looked away briefly, and then sat down at the table in the center of the living room.

"Rinoa is an Ancient," he explained. "The last surviving Ancient."

"Ancients?" Zell muttered. "You mean those fairy-like magic users? I thought they were all gone."

"They are," Squall replied quickly. "Most of them died out or are in hiding." He turned to Caraway. "You aren't her real father."

"No," the former general replied with a shake of his head. "It was a long time ago. Twelve years. I had just resigned my commission as a general and had moved down here in the slums. I had gotten off the train late at night, the only person getting off at the station, and I saw them."

"Them?" Zell asked, sitting down. Everyone gathered around the table, listening intently to Caraway's story.

"A brown-haired woman and a little dark-haired girl," Caraway continued. "The woman was pale and bleeding severely. I rushed over to her side, where the little girl was sobbing and crying her eyes out. The woman tried looking up at me, and told me to please watch after her daughter." Caraway paused, and looked back up.

"Her daughter's name was Rinoa. The woman died moments later, and just afterward I heard the sounds of boots approaching. Shinra soldiers were coming for her and her daughter, I realized, and I scooped up the little girl and ran off into the slums. Ever since, I've raised Rinoa as my own. Within a few weeks we were like father and daughter." He chuckled.

"She was incredibly talkative. And stubborn too. Kept telling me about how she had escaped from some research laboratory, how her mother was returned to the planet, and so on. I wasn't sure what she was talking about, but I knew the labs she mentioned must have been Shinra's, so I hid her as much as I could from their constant searches."

"Returned to the planet?" Zell asked, and Caraway nodded.

"I wasn't sure what she meant by that," he relied. "When I asked her, she said that she meant this planet. She didn't really clarify, as if it would only truely make sense to her and no one else. Even though I raised her for twelve years and she talked all the time, I still didn't really understand her, but I had an inkling of what she might truly be when he entered her life."

"Who's 'he'?" Zell asked.

"Seifer," Squall immediately answered, and Caraway nodded. Everyone else looked at him in confusion.

"One of my comrades in SeeD," Squall explained. "Rinoa told me he was her boyfriend for a while."

"Yes, that was him," Caraway confirmed. "He cared for her, and I'm certain she was in love with him. One day when he came by, he warned Rinoa that she was being searched for by Shinra. He told us they were looking for an 'Ancient.' He disappeared a few days after that, and we never saw him again. I was worried that he had been killed, but Rinoa assured me he was safe. At first I thought it was just her hoping he was still alive, but she seemed so very certain. She knew he was alive, as surely as if she was watching his vital signs. She tried to hide what she was capable of, but I knew there was something special about her. She was in tune with all types of life. I'd see her at times out in the garden, just sitting there, as if listening to a song no one else could hear."

"I'm amazed she was able to hide for so long," Squall added, and Caraway nodded.

"Shinra would never harm her, so she was able to escape them easily enough," he replied. "She's much tougher than she looks."

"But she's in Shinra hands now," Squall muttered darkly. "I'm not going to leave her there."

"You'll have to go all the way into Shinra headquarters," Caraway replied, shaking his head. "That place is a solid fortress. There's an entire battalion of Shinra soldiers there, not to mention Turks, SeeD, and Hyne knows what else. There's no way you three can breach that facility. It's impossible."

"Impossible is what SeeDs do," Squall answered simply. He turned to Zell and Quistis. "Are you two still up for it?" he asked, and they nodded immediately.

"Like hell I'm going to let them get away with this!" Zell proclaimed.

"Same here," Quistis added.

"Then let's go," Squall stated. He turned to the other two members of AVALANCHE, and noticed that both Watts and Xu were still injured, Xu still favoring her leg while Watts had several bandages around his arms and legs.

"I can't ask you two to come," he stated, and both rebels reluctantly nodded.

"We'll just slow you down," Xu replied.

"Don't worry about us, sir!" Watts added. "Kick some ass, sir!" Squall nodded.

"Be good," he stated, and then he, Zell, and Quistis left Rinoa's home.

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They arrived in Wall Market some hours later, and quickly encountered Zone, the rebel burdened with a heavy bag.

"Got some gear for you!" he crowed, smiling. "Shinra's shut down all the trains, so you're kind of stuck down here, but I had a chat with some kids who said that the debris from Sector Seven should be stable enough to provide a route up."

"Good job," Zell replied with a nod. "What gear do you have?"

"Well, after that last battle I figured you guys would need to stock up on some medicines," Zone replied, pulling out a smaller satchel. "The usual varieties, as well as some stronger stuff, just in case. I also got some fragmentation grenades." Zone lifted a couple of boxes of the explosives, and Squall scooped one up, clipping the small bombs to his belt. These would come in handy.

"Figured you may also need one of these," Zone also added, pulling out another bomb, much like the ones they had used in the reactor and on the train. Zell took that explosive.

"And the guy over in the guns and ammo shop sold me these," Zone finished, pulling out a pair of large, heavy-duty batteries. "Said he scoped out the debris while picking up spare parts and wreckage from the collapse. There's a way up there, but he said we'd need the batteries to pull it off."

"I guess we'll have to trust him," Quistis said. Squall took one of the batteries, as did Zell. They each distributed the various types of potions and medicines, and were ready for the trek.

"Good luck," Zone added. "I'll head for Sector Five and link up with the others."

"You take care of yourself, man!" Zell stated. "We're gonna be here together when Shinra bites the big one!"

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A single narrow but strong cable hung down from what seemed to be a unstable mass of wreckage, reaching all the way down from the plate borders. Nonetheless, that was their route up, and Squall didn't hesitate to begin the climb, Quistis and Zell following.

After about ten meters of climbing, they passed the wall separating Sector Six from Sector Seven, and the full extent of the damage became apparent. Half of Sector Seven's plate was utterly demolished, and the remaining was dark, like an abandoned town. Shinra helicopters circled and buzzed like insects over a carcass, offering whatever aid they could to the people Shinra had just devastated.

"Damn," Zell muttered as they continued climbing. "I knew it was bad, but . . . ."

No one said anything else as they ascended another ten meters to where the cable dropped from, a hanging pile of debris. Oddly enough, Squall noted a plane engine above, the propeller at almost the right angle to give them access to the top of the hanging pile. Only the lower half of the propeller was immediately accessible, but Squall noted a panel in the side of the engine was open, revealing a spot where a battery could be placed. Shrugging, Squall moved over and plugged the battery in.

The propeller whirled to life immediately, but only for a short time. The battery they had been given wasn't that powerful, and the engine sucked up most of the energy. However, Squall noted with a degree of hope, the propeller, once finished with its rotation, had stopped at an angle that would allow them to reach the top of the debris. They took it immediately, scaling the engine and climbing higher through the impromptu bridge.

Another mass of debris hung just above them, but it would be difficult to scale up there, as it was high enough up that Squall was unsure if he could reach it, and he suspected that even if he jumped, missed, and landed back on the debris platform, the jolt from the impact would cause the unstable platform to fall apart.

Quistis solved the problem an instant later when she found a gate, the kind that lowered across train tracks to ward off cars when the train was approaching. The device was constructed out of metal, and would be able to hold their weight properly. It merely lacked power, which Zell quickly supplied with his battery. The gate rose immediately, just like with the propeller, and the trio scrambled up the impromptu bridge.

"That weapons guy must have done his homework," Zell commented as they climbed up the new debris platform.

"Let's just hope we don't need anymore," Quistis added.

A minute later, they had reached the top of the platform, and spotted another hanging mass of debris, dangling by several heavy cables and pipes, looking quite stable - compared to the platforms they'd been scaling. The only problem was distance; Squall and Zell could leap the distance, but it was almost too far for them if they were burdened by carrying Quistis. The two men considered their predicament for a moment, before Quistis' face brightened. She flicked out her whip and snapped the long chain up to another hanging pipe halfway between the two piles of debris. The chain secured, she leaped forward, swinging on her makeshift rope, and managed to land easily across the gap.

Zell and Squall followed with mighty leaps, and from there, the trio scaled the remaining pipes and cables, ascending to the world above the slums, to the citadel where Shinra nested.

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I apologize for the relatively short length of this chapter. Normally my chappies are longer than this, but my dramatic sense of placement of chapters demanded that this get its own chapter. To make up for the short length, I am updating Gunblade at the same time, thus giving you plenty to read!

Also, I would really appreciate it if I did get more reviews for this. I'm not getting as much as I get for Gunblade, actually, and considering my fanbase there I was expecting more for Synthesis....


	8. Breaching the Nexus

Chapter 7: Breaching the Nexus

The center of the web loomed before them, towering above the trio of stalwart rebels. It towered above them, an ivory pillar lit by thousands of yellow lights as Shinra workers buzzed about, performing their tasks within the headquarters of their corporation. It wasn't a straight and tall tower, but rather tapered, its base wide and cylindrical, with a smaller pair of towers reaching up to either side of the structure, locations where garrisons of Shinra soldiers could rush out to defend the main tower against any outside threat. These dome-like defense towers barely reached above the fifth level of the main tower, their bases located far below, on the central plate many hundreds of feet beneath where Squall, Quistis, and Zell stood.

The Shinra Tower itself was held up on a pede stal far above the majority of the city of Midgar, surrounded by massive pipes and an ever-rising wall of greenish-white Mako energy, seeming to be immolated in the very energy that it hoped to reap. Halfway up the structure was another defensive point, a massive horizontal cylinder where there was housed the Midgar air force and helicopter units, ready to launch at a word from the President. The building seemed to curve around this massive military hangar and rise above, widening to the upper floors, where Shinra's most secret reasearch was conducted, most guarded records were kept, and highest-ranking personnel lived and worked to expand their empire.

"Wow," Zell muttered, shaking his head as he looked up at the tower. "Never thought I'd be here, taking it to the enemy."

"Squall," Quistis stated as the ex-SeeD stepped forward purposefully. "You know no one's ever done something like this before."

"Walking face-first into enemy headquarters with an army of guards and war machines on either side waiting to pounce on our heads?" Zell replied. "Hell no. No one's that stupid, except us."

"And that's why its going to work," Squall replied, striding forward toward the front entrance.

"We go in hard and fast," the ex-SeeD stated as he advanced. "There should be an elevator at the back. We take it up, then ditch it and climb up the shaft to the sixtieth floor. Once there we'll need special clearance to access the upper floors beyond Level Sixty. We'll have to move forward one step at a time from there onward."

"You've been here before, haven't you?" Zell asked, and Squall nodded.

"This is where SeeD is trained," he replied. "I never went beyond Level Sixty, though, so I'm not sure what to expect. But we should have a few minutes before the guards respond on the ground floor. Those garrisons were established to defend against external attack, not to secure the building from intruders already inside the perimeter. Shinra hasn't set up protocols for pursuing and clearing enemies inside the building itself because they know security's good enough to keep out any rabble and that their reputation would stop anyone with half a brain from trying to break in in the first place."

"Pretty arrogant," Zell muttered, and Squall nodded.

"They've never seriously considered a small-scale attack by a skilled foe," Squall added. "They never considered anyone who opposed them to be skilled in the first place."

Squall stopped outside the doors and glanced back to his group. Quistis nodded, and Zell gave a thumbs-up and a cocky grin. Squall turned to the doors and slid them open, stepping into the main lobby of the Shinra Building.

The lobby was massive, the ceiling towering above them. The huge room consisted of three floors, each level connected by wide, sweeping staircases, and the floors featured various models and makes of vehicles and other products that Shinra produced. Holographic signs were scattered around the lobby, along with dozens of civilians perusing the displayed wares or going about other business. Outnumbering the many civilians, however, were two entire platoons of Shinra soldiers, numbering over eighty men, patrolling the lobby.

"Excuse me," the receptionist at the desk near the entrance said, looking up. "I'll need to know your names and see your IDs before-"

"No time, lady!" Zell replied, pulling a pair of grenades from inside his jacket. "This is an emergency! Get down, the party's starting!" Beside him, Squall and Quistis had drawn their own grenades. Four pins popped from the explosives as Zell tossed his pair and Quistis and Squall hurled heir own, the small explosives flying in the thickest concentrations of patrolling guards. The blue-clad men had barely begun to respond to the sudden disturbance when the bombs detonated, blasting the soldiers apart and scattering those who remained intact.

The lobby was filled with screams, both from the frightened civilians and the wounded and dying soldiers. Men raised their weapons as civilians scattered in abject terror. In the confusion of the sudden attack, Squall, Zell, and Quistis broke to the right, toward one of the staircases leading up. They dashed up even as the surviving soldiers from the ground floor rushed to the scene and the entrance, not spotting the trio of teenagers in the confusion.

The three intruders managed to reach he top of the first staircase before trouble found them. A pair of Shinra soldiers rushed to meet them between the first and second staircases, while another squad standing at the center of the second floor rushed to back them up.

The Revolver was in Squall's hands in an instant as the two nearer soldiers brandished tonfas for close-quarters combat and adavnced. Squall deflected the first strike from one of the soldiers, and rolled with his parry, spinning around the initial soldier and avoiding the second man's tonfa swing. The ex-SeeD's left hand drew one of his knives and drove it into the neck of the first soldier, and while the second turned toward Squall to strike him again, Zell came up beside the man and smashed his faceplate in with a single roundhouse punch.

The initial pair of soldiers were dead, but the squad that remained now had clear shots at the pair, or they would have if Quistis hadn't been covering Squall and Zell. Her bracelet on her left hand flared green, and a shimmering blue-white mass of pure cold gathered in her hand and lanced out at the lead soldiers. Two were blasted off their feet, frozen almost instantly by the cold magic, and the remainder were momentarily stunned by the blast. Even as they were readjusting their aim, however, a grenade from Zell landed in their midst and detonated, shredding the squadron of men.

The trio bounded up the second flight of stairs, moving halfway up the flight before the last of the dead men had even stopped rolling away from the blast. However, up above another threat loomed, a pair of humanoid suits of armor, about seven feet tall. They were heavy powered armors, painted red and black, housing a single soldier within, and featured a pair of machineguns, one mounted on each arm.

The heavy armors leveled their machineguns at the pair, but Squall snapped up a hand, lightning erupting from his fingers and striking the armors, forking between them and sending both weapons back a step. Zell leaped past Squall, running up ahead and jumping into the air to plant two feet against one of the weapons, buckling its outer plate armor inward and throwing it backward to crash against one of the walls. The other armor spun toward him, swinging its left arm like a club in a strike that would crush a man's skull inward.

Squall ducked low as gunfire stitched the wall above himself and Quistis, two Shinra soldiers on the upper floor firing at the intruders. Behind him, Quistis responded with another blast of frigid energy, which took one man off his feet and sent the other ducking for cover. Squall rushed ahead, toward the armor that Zell had kicked aside, which was rising shakily.

Zell caught the clubbing arm from his foe across his head, but shook it off, his _ki_ shielding his body from injury. The brawler countered by grabbing the striking arm and wrenching it out wide, then hooking the other arm between the suited soldier's legs. With a slight grunt, Zell lifted the man up and hurled him clear off the top level, armor and all, to crash heavily and painfully below. Behind him, Squall had reached the prone armor and thrust his gunblade hard, the powerful weapon punching through the armor and into the soldier inside. Squall squeezed the weapon's trigger, slagging the armor and finishing off the man inside.

Zell ducked as the remaining soldier on the upper floor opened fire with his rifle, but the barrage was cut short by a whipping rante blade that sliced into and severed the man's right arm. The assault rifle, clenched in the soldier's right hand fell away as the man screamed in sudden searing pain, a cry that turned into a gurgle as Qusitis' rante snapped back, taking the man's throat and sending him spinning to the floor.

"Elevator!" Squall shouted, pointing to a row of elevator doors at the back of the third level. The trio dashed for them, Squall reaching the doors first and hitting the call button. The elevator door opened immediately, and the pair leaped in. Squall shut the doors and hit the button for the fifty-ninth floor, the highest floor this elevator would ascend to. Not pausing, he scanned the roof ceiling of the car and saw an access panel above. Zell and Quistis tracked where he was looking, and the brawler, being directly under the panel, jumped straight up, smashing the top of his head against the panel and knocking it free. He leaped up again, catching the lip of the opening, and halued himself up. Qusitis was next, Squall helping her up, and then he ascended as well, climbing through the hole.

"Now what?" Zell asked, looking up at the passing walls of the elevator shaft. He had easily enough figured out what Squall had wanted inside, but now he wasn't sure where the ex-SeeD was going.

"We wait," Squall answered, taking out the bomb Zone had given them. He affixed a proximity detonater to the bomb and armed it, then dropped it into the elevator car below. He then drew his gunblade again, and waited for several long seconds, before the elevator suddenly screeched to a halt. The ex-SeeD was moving instantly, leaping up on the cable the elevator hung from and scrambling up it to the floor just above where they'd stopped. Then, like in the elevator in Mako Reactor One, he thrust his gunblade into the closed doors above them and fired a blast, blowing the doors open. Quistis and Zell were right behind him, climbing after the ex-SeeD as he jumped into the empty hallway beyond. They joined him a moment later, and within a couple of seconds the elevator that they had been riding began descending, doubtless back to the lobby where a small army of Shinra soldiers waited

"I don't think the reception will be very pleasant," Quistis commented as the explosive-rigged car descended.

"Now what?" Zell asked again. Squall pointed to another door, this one alongside the bank of elevators on this floor. They rushed over to it, the door revealing a long stairwell rising directly above them.

"Now what?" Zell asked for the third time, drawing a slightly annoyed glance from Squall, before he started up the stairs.

"W-wait!" the brawler cried as Quistis followed. "We're going up this whole flight of stairs?"

"That's the plan," Squall called, already two levels above the martial artist. Zell whined but started after them, shaking his head.

Five minutes later, Zell was wheezing as he rounded the last flight of stairs, shaking his head. Just ahead of him, Quistis was also breathing hard, but she had kept a good pace with Squall, who was stopping at the top of the stairs at the fifty-ninth floor, the ex-SeeD not even breathing hard. The others reached the top, Zell stopping to bend over, resting his hands on his knees.

"What the hell did they feed you in SeeD?" Zell demanded. Squall didn't answer, instead peeking outside the door, before coming back in.

"There's three heavy armors waiting outside," he reported. "They're standing at the only elevators giving access to the upper levels. One of them should have a keycard to access the next level. We'll need specific cards to access specific levels. One may give us access to Sixty, but not to Sixty-One."

"Gotcha," Zell replied. "Let's hurry up and kick some ass!" Beside him, Quistis uncoiled her whip and nodded.

"There's no cover between here and them," Squall added. "So we'll need to be quick. Quistis, cover us." She nodded again, moving beside him. Squall drew the Revolver, and looked outside once more. Aside from the three men in heavy armor in front of the elevators, no one else was on this relatively sparse floor. In fact, the floor itself was little more than a security checkpoint, though the lack of security bothered Squall. Had they not been alerted up here yet? He certainly would have set more guards here, at the very least regular soldiers if not heavy armor troopers or SeeDs.

Then again, the garrison below was probably just now being scrambled, he knew, but it would only be a matter of time before security forces would start sweeping the floors below. They would have to move quickly and get into these "secure" levels fast and undetected.

"On my mark," Squall whispered, and beside him, his comrades tensed.

"Mark!" he hissed, and Quistis spun out, electricity exploding from her hands as her wrist flared green. Squall and Zell burst out as well, charging across the intervening twenty or so feet between their hiding place and the guards. The men were startled by the sudden assault, then hurled backwards as the electrical magic impacted hard with their armors. They did not fall, instead stepping back, their armors taking the damage well.

Zell hurled himself forward, leaping into the air with both feet leading in a repeat of his attack below. He smashed hard into one of the reeling armored soldiers, blasting the man off his feet and hurling him across the room to crash heavily into the wall beside the elevator. Beside the brawler, Squall rushed forward, his gunblade rising up. The ex-SeeD punched out with all his power, his blade blasting through the metal armor but stopped before it could dig deeply into the man beneath. Squall didn't fire a shot from his blade, however, instead spinning around, wrenching his weapon out and sending the armored soldier spinning forward, the front of his armor partially ripped open.

Zell was upon his foe in an instant, leaping atop the armor and grabbing the front of the helmet, one hand on the armored faceplate, the other where the helmet met the rest of the armor suit. He grunted, pulling his hands in opposite directions as he focused his _ki_, and the brawler felt the plate seperate from the main body, the metal bending upward to expose the stunned face of the Shinra soldier within. Zell stood up on the armor's chest, and sent his foot slamming down into the soldier's face with an atypically sadistic smile.

Squall came out of his spin with a leap toward the remaining armored soldier, his gunblade low to the floor. The recovering Shinra trooper turned to face Squall, but did not manage to raise his weapons in time as the ex-SeeD closed in, gunblade slicing up and parting the armor plate. Squall pulled the trigger on his gunblade, and the Revolver spat a blast of energy that tore apart the man inside.

The last armored soldier had recovered from the shock and the sudden attack, and found himself facing Squall as the ex-SeeD cut down his comrade. The man scowled, then smiled grimly, ignoring the pain in his sliced chest as he began to raise is weapons. Then he was suddenly wrenched around as a chain ensnared his arm, and the man found himself facing Quistis even as her left wrist flared with magic once more. A blast of frigid air struck the soldier, cutting through the rent plate of his armor like a knife and snuffing out his life force. The frozen armor and the man within toppled to the floor.

The sentry elimination had been quick, less than three seconds from the first blast to the last stroke, and no one had sounded an alert. That was the way Squall liked it. He found an access card on the body of the central soldier who Quistis had finished, and with it they boarded the elevator to the sixtieth floor.

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"Two platoons-worth dead," Rude reported, listening over the radio. "And two additional squads were shredded on the fourth floor when we redirected the elevator. Some type of explosive in the car."

Tseng nodded at the report, then turned to President Shinra, who was standing behind his desk, head in the palm of his hand.

"Well?" Shinra demanded. "Where are they?"

"Sir," the Turk chief stated, turning toward the President, "with the exception of the destroyed elevator, we have no further idea where they may have gone, except that they are coming up."

"Up here?" the President asked, coming forward in his chair.

"Doubtless they are heading for the secured floors above Fifty-Nine," Tseng confirmed with a nod.

"Yeah," added Reno, leaning against one of the pillars of the President's office, an unlit cigarette poking out of his mouth.

"I know Squall," the Turk added, flicking out his baton and extending it. "He's in charge, I don't doubt it. And he's heading up here."

"The damn traitor should be dead!" the president protested, and Tseng shrugged.

"He's alive," the Turk chief replied. "Nothing much we can do about it, except killing him here."

"There is an entire batallion of Shinra soldiers here," Shinra stated, sitting back. "There's no way they'll survive against that many of our men, led by an ex-SeeD or not."

"Nah," Reno agreed with a nod. "No way. But . . ." The Turk activated his rod, electricity sparking, and lit the tip of his cigarette with it. " . . . they won't need to fight the garrison. Their objective is up here, on the secured floors."

"What objective?" Shinra asked, his voice starting to show signs of nervousness. "Me? They want to kill me?"

"If Dincht is with 'em, hell yeah," Reno replied with a shrug. "But coming after you is probably secondary to the real objective."

"The Ancient," Rude added, and Reno nodded.

"Squall's here for her, first and foremost," Reno stated, stepping forward off the pillar. "So, we give her to him." The President balked.

"We just . . . " Shinra waved his hand in the air, as if throwing a meaningless trinket away. "Give her away? After we've been searching for her for twelve years?"

"Never said that," Reno replied. "But I did say we let him get to her."

"Minimize security on the upper floors," Tseng added, nodding. "Let Leonhart get up to where we're keeping her."

"Then, BAM!" Reno added with a smile. "Once we've got him on that floor, we just swoop in for the kill."

"Relocate all the troops to the sixty-ninth," Tseng added. Rude nodded and hopped on it, talking over the radio. "We carry out normal operations. Tell everyone that the situation is resolved and carry on as normal. Leonhart will move through the upper floors thinking he's safe."

"And we capture him as he goes for the Ancient," Shinra stated with a nod. "Good plan. I'll leave building security in your capable hands, Tseng. There's a short meeting I need to attend with the department heads, Odine, and Hojo." With assenting nods and salutes from the Turks, Shinra rose and strode off, descending the staircase to the sixty-nith floor.

"Hojo?" Reno asked, spitting the name out. "That sick bastard." None of the others disagreed.

--------------------

While Zell's most obivous skill was his high-degree of martial arts expertise, the brawler was known for having other specialties, one of which was machines. He'd always loved machinery, and had studied mechanics while learning how to channel his _ki_ as well. Thus, he seemed quite natural when checking the damaged door lock on the sixty-first floor of the Shinra building, a level which was essentially a huge lounge and bar.

"S'cuse me," asked one of the couple dozen or so office workers unwinding on this floor, one who had noticed Zell's checking of the door. "Are you with the maintenance division?"

Zell glanced up, smiled, and nodded, straightening.

"Yup," he replied. "Off the clock right now, but one of my buddies told me to have a look at this busted door up here while I was dropping by. This thing needs some work."

"I know," the suit replied, shaking his head. "Things are always breaking down around here."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go punch in in a bit and check the upper doors too, no telling what's wrong up there. The big-wigs upstairs will be pissed if their perfect security isn't in tip-top shape, and I'm not gonna have my head on a stake if it isn't."

"I know what you mean!" the worker replied, nodding.

"Need to get my card too, that new guy borrowed it and he hasn't returned it either," Zell added, and the worker shrugged, pulling his card out of his pocket.

"Just between you and me," the man said, holding the card out to Zell. "Better not waste any time and get to the repairs ASAP, especially with that meeting up there that's going down soon. You can borrow mine, just drop it off at my office on the sixty-sixth. My office number's on the card."

"Thanks, man!" Zell replied, taking the card. "I'll handle it."

A moment later, Zell was back inside the inner stairwell that ran along the upper floors, a passage that the intruders had only discovered after dodging a set of sentries on Level Sixty. Squall and Quistis waited inside as Zell grinned, holding up the card.

"Sixty-Six?" Squall asked, thinking. "That's one of the administration levels, and where the boardroom is at."

"The guy I got this from said there's a meeting going on," Zell replied, and Squall nodded.

"If its an executive meeting, then there's probably some useful information we can get from there," Quistis said, and Squall nodded in agreement.

"There's a ventilation shaft that overlooks the boardroom," Squall stated, running the maps of the building through his head again. "Easiest place to access them is from the bathroom."

"Glad to have someone who knows the terrain," Zell commented as they ascended the stairwell.

"We'll listen in on the meeting," Squall explained as they went up. "Then we head for the sixty-seventh floor. That's where the holding cells are, as well as some of the upper labs. That's probably where they're holding Rinoa." The others nodded, and soon they reached the sixty-sixth floor. Squall swiped the card in the reader, and the door hissed open. Squall stepped out silently, checking the hallway. There was no movement and no one in sight, and he waved the others forward.

Silently, Squall led the group through the hallways, always pausing at each intersection to check for any civilians or soldiers moving around. Aside from the occassional secretary carrying files, however, most of the people on this floor stayed in their offices as the remains of AVALANCHE moved about. Within a matter of minutes, the group had located the bathroom, and Squall moved immediately into one of the stalls, hopping up onto the toilet and reaching up to a ventilation shaft directly overhead. He popped it open and climbed in, Quistis following and Zell bringing up the rear, closing the stall and locking it.

The shaft was cold, and the metal colder, but the trio made no notice of it, excepting a quiet "Brr!" from Zell. They crawled forward for a long minute, until another they reached another grating, which overlooked a finely appointed chamber, consisting of plush red carpets, paneled mohagany walls, and the top five Shinra executives seated at a long table. Squall nodded as he recognized each man and the one woman.

"Heidegger, the bearded one" he whispered as the others moved up next to him, looking down into the boardroom below as the Shinra executives took their seats. "Head of 'Peace Presevation'. Actually the head of Shinra's military." He nodded to a white-haired, blubbery man taking a seat farthest from Shinra.

"That's Palmer, head of the Space Program, based out in Rocket Town on the western continent," Squall continued. He then nodded to the only woman in the room, a blonde woman with a enviable bust size, rolling hips, and long legs that her expensive red dress made no effort to hide.

"Scarlet, head of Weapons Development," Squall stated. Zell scowled.

"Heard of her," he muttered darkly. "Textbook definition of a slut."

"The company motocycle," Squall added, a faint scowl of his own spreading across his face. "Most of the men in the building have taken her for a ride, including about half the group in that room. And that is Adam Reeve," Squall finished, nodding to a cleanly dressed man with thick, long black hair, a goatee, and a blue suit.

"I've heard of him too," Quistis whispered. "One of the few decent men in the upper ranks of the company. He's head of Urban Planning, right?" Squall nodded.

"The preliminary estimates are coming in now," Reeve stated calmly, handing each of his peers and the President a copy of some statistical figures. "Damages in Sector Seven, totaled from all of the civilian losses, destroyed buildings, and the new factories we were investing in, not to mention Mako production cuts and military personnel that were lost in the battle, totals at over ten billion gil." There were grim nods from everyone, except Shinra, who simply put the paper down after a quick glance, and lit one of his ever-present cigars.

"Estimates on the cost of rebuilding are much higher, in the high-"

"We're not rebuilding," Shinra stated, puffing his cigar.

"But, sir, I think-" Reeve began, but Shinra cut him off.

"Sector Seven is staying as is as a reminder to those who would oppose us," Shinra replied. "Furthermore, I see no reason to waste money on rebuilding at this time."

"Waste?" Reeve replied, and Shinra nodded.

"Midgar is no longer essential," Shinra replied evenly. He smiled faintly as whispers filled the room.

"The Neo-Midgar plan is being restarted as of the end of his meeting," he proclaimed, and that turned the whispers into gasps.

"Then . . . the Ancients?" Scarlet asked, and Shinra nodded.

"Yes," he stated. "Tseng and the Turks captured our long-lost subject and she is even now in the labs of our esteemed scientists. With the implementation of the plan we will need additional funds. Raise the mako rates by fifteen percent in all sectors, as well as all the cities and towns that are using our reactors."

"Whoo!" Palmer cried in joy, hopping up and down. "Mr. President, please divert some of that delicious rate hike to the Space Program!"

"No," Shinra replied evenly, puffing his cigar. "You're making a fool out of yourself, Palmer, and your Space Program is steadily deteriorating into a project better belonging to Weapon Development or Peace Preservation. Therefore, Heidegger and Scarlet will divide the added revenue from the rate hike. We need the new weapons brought online soon if Wutai decides to cause anymore trouble."

"Aw, man," Palmer muttered, sinking back into his seat.

"Sir, won't a rate hike cause the people to lose confidence?" Reeve asked dubiously, and Shinra shook his head.

"On the contrary," Shinra stated. "We will instead simply spread the word that the funds are needed as part of the relief effort in response to the Sector Seven tragedy, and as part of our expansion policies to further enrich our customers and citizens. The ignorant people will come to trust us even more, even as we rake in the gil."

"After all," Heidegger added with a bellowing laugh, "We're the ones who saved Sector Seven from AVALANCHE!"

"I'm gonna punt his head off the top of this bulding," Zell muttered before Quistis shushed him.

"And now, the men who will be working with our dear specimen," Shinra added, nodding toward the far end of the room. "Doctors Odine and Hojo, please?"

Through a set of unseen doors, a pair of men entered, one a tall, thin, oily figure with thin, scraggly black hair and a white lab coat. The other was small, almost a midget, and clad in unconventional clothing, consisting of purple robe and a strange, flaring red and white striped collar, above which was a round head with tightly pulled back black hair and perpetually squinting eyes. While the smaller man, Doctor Odine, seemed quite goofy and animated, the taller man radiated an aura that instantly put off the three intruders in the shaft, even at this distance. Doctor Akira Hojo seemed to simply exude sheer _wrongness_, as if by his very nature he violated some sacred law.

"How goes the testing?" Shinra asked. Hojo rested his chin in his hand as if considering something, his eyes flashing behind his thin spectacles. Odine, however, spoke immediately.

"Az a zpecimen," the small man began, bobbing his head and speaking through a strange, thick accent. "She iz inferior to her mother, largely. Ze differences so var are genetic in nature, az her blood iz not entirely pure . . . though her Ancient nature in and of itzelf is zuperior to mere human genetic structure, and zerefore partially ovevvidez ze impuritiez in her DNA."

"We estimate that the difference to be about eighteen percent," Hojo added quietly, his voice quiet but somehow disturbing, as if through it he was transmitting the sheer otherness of his mind. It was the voice of a madman, but not the wild, cackling kind, instead the one of a quiet insanity that nonetheless made itself known almost as blatantly as that of the louder kind.

"How long will the research take?" Shinra asked, and Hojo shrugged.

"Complete research into all aspects of her nature will take about a hundred and twenty years," he stated matter of factly. "However, practical gains, like completely gathering the data for the Neo-Midgar plan, will take upwards of two to three years, though we predict initial gains within the first few months. However, complete research is an impossibility in our lifetime, or that of the specimen."

"Hojo haz zuggezted breeding her wiz a lifeform zat can live longer," Odine added. "Ve have recently come into pozzezion of one zuch creature."

"What about the Promised Land?" Shinra asked.

"We need to plan something out," Hojo replied. "Like a said, however, we should begin to make progress within the next few months, even with just the data we've received from the tests over the last few hours."

"Very well, then," Shinra stated. "We don't want to hold up the work on the project. I want all department heads to be preparing for the Neo-Midgar operation. Heidegger, get your military forces mobilized in preparation for taking new territory and warding off any threat from Wutai. Scarlet, I want you to pursue any new avenues in weapons development. Reeve, continue recovery efforts in Sector Seven. And Palmer . . . expect further budget cuts. That is all. Dismissed."

The group of Shinra executives rose from their seats and began to leave, and the trio of intruders took their leave as well, crawling back through the shaft to the bathroom.

"We'll have to follow Hojo and Odine," Squall stated as they entered the bathroom once more. "If I remember corectly, his lab is just above this floor."

"We don't have a keycard for that level," Quistis stated, but Squall shook his head.

"Hojo's never been known to be particularly stringent about his security measures," the ex-SeeD stated. "He usually left his doors unlocked when I was here, and he doesn't look like he's changed much. As long as we stay close behind those two, we should be able to slip into their labs."

Zell and Quistis nodded, trusting in Squall's judgement, and they left the bathroom moments later. They moved through the hallways quickly, retracing their route, and soon Squall had them near the stairwell once more, just as Odine and Hojo walked by and entered the stairwell. Squall gave them a few seconds of lead before he followed, climbing up after the pair to the next floor. As the ex-SeeD had expected, they had left the door to level Sixty-Seven unlocked, and AVALANCHE entered the lab and prison level.

"The prison sector should be north of here," Squall stated as they moved silently through the labs, passing several large monitoring stations and computer rooms. After a couple of minutes Squall located a hallway leading toward the prison and led the way. They rounded a bend to find a hallway featuring a series of sliding metal doors, all featuring barred windows. A quick check, however, showed that none of the prison cells was inhabited.

"Probably took her to one of the upper levels," Zell commented, and Squall nodded, doubling back on their original route. They continued checking the labs, before finally spotting the tail end of Odine's collar poking around a corner as the tiny doctor waddled into a specimen storage area. The three intruders followed the not-so-good doctor, into a room strewn with crates and boxes, dominated by a huge, low dome-like structure with a single door on the side, from which glowed a pink light. Beyond the dome, Hojo and Odine stood beside a huge glass tube, within which was some kind of fire-red, quadrapedal creature. Squall, Zell, and Quistis took some cover behind the haphazardly-placed boxes and tuned their ears into the conversation between the scientists.

"Ah, ze zpecimen iz ready?" Odine asked, and Hojo nodded.

"We're begining right away," he stated. "We'll move it to the upper level where the other specimen waits, then we'll begin the process." With that, the two scientists turned and boarded a nearby elevator on the north side of the room, which ascended to the next floor. Once the coast was clear, the group stood, Zell and Quistis edging closer to the glass tube, while Squall glanced toward the dome, a strange curiousity surrounding him. He stepped toward the dome.

"What is this?" Quistis asked as she approached the tube. Within the cell lay a powerful-looking creature, its short fur a deep crimson along its back, lightening to a fiery yellow-orange along its belly. Physically, it was built much like a combination of both a fluid hunting cat and a powerfully built wolf, with a long, whip-like tail whose end glowed like a burning brand. Tattoos adorned its left flank, along both its fore and rear legs, and a large black "XIII" was located on its left shoulder. A black mane ran down from the top of its head down its back, sticking up like a short mowhawk, with much longer strands of fur rising over and around the creature's head, some dropping down in front of its face. The creature must have been sleeping, but as they approached it stirred, turning its head to look their way, and they noticed one eye was partially closed by a scar. The other, however, was wide open, showing a fiercely burning red eye that regarded them with a strange intelligence.

The beast regarded them with open hostility for a moment, before seeming to recognize they meant no threat, upon which it relaxed. That relaxation ended an instant later as the glass tube suddenly began rising. The beast jumped to its feet, looking around the small cell as it rose into the ceiling.

"Squall!" Zell called, turning around, only to see Squall was not looking at them, but was instead stepping toward the dome slowly and deliberately, his eyes unfocused. Quistis and Zell rushed over to him as he peered through the pink-glowing window into the dome.

It was suspended in stasis, a hanging figured standing straight and tall, unmoving within its pink prison. Squall gasped as he saw it, partially in recognition, and partially in pain as he felt a wave of sheer, unyielding malice sweep through him. The thing within posessed a woman's shape, a curvecous figure that would have set off any man, except for the smooth, blotched skin, grayish flesh that shone a dull pink in the light of the stasis dome. Squall winced as he focused on the frozen creature, the directionless hate in his mind expanding and spreading, and evil force that the thing within was exuding, even while frozen and inert. Pain rippled through his mind as he stared at it, hot spikes of fury and suffering and agony and madness.

He could stand it no longer and began to back away, shaking his head as the pain and rage and unrelenting destructive desires began to dissipate. The ex-SeeD took another step back, his legs suddenly stumbling, and he fell back, to be caught by Quistis. He looked up into her blue eyes and shook his head at her confused expression, stammering out one word from his shaking lips.

"Jenova," he whispered, eyes flicking back to the dome. Zell, who stood beside it, frowned, peeking in, before turning back, seeming more confused than disturbed.

"What?" he asked. "I don't get it, the damn thing in there doesn't even have a head!" Squall shook his head, his mind recovering from the shock of seeing the creature inside the dome once more.

"Sephiroth's Jenova," he whispered, getting his feet back under him as Quistis guided him back up. "So, they brought . . . it here?"

"What is that thing?" Quistis asked, but Squall shook his head.

"The mission," Squall muttered. "It was what made me leave Shinra."

"That headless freak in there?" Zell asked, hooking a finger over his shoulder. "Look, man, pull yourself together. We've all seen some freaky shit in here. We can chat about your mission later, but right now we gota grab Rinoa and run. Hear me!"

"Yeah," Squall replied with a nod, almost fully recovered from the surprising encounter. "Quistis, thanks."

"Don't mention it," she replied. "We should be able to get up using that elevator that Hojo and Odine took."

They quickly boarded the small elevator and rode it up to the next floor, which, it turned out, was the only floor it went to anyway. It ascended to a wide chamber, a single huge laboratory, overlooked by a catwalk spanning the chamber. The eastern and northern sections of the lab were elevated, overlooking a large glass specimen cell on the western end. Hojo and Odine, along with a group of technicians, stood on the eastern end of the chamber, the techs preparing for the coming experiment while Odine and Hojo surveyed their subject.

"Rinoa!" Squall shouted, seeing her within the cell, slumped on the floor. She looked up at her name being shouted, and everyone's attention was suddenly riveted on the trio of intruders coming out of the northern elevator.

"Is that her name?" Hojo asked, seeming nonchalant, which was far from the shocked and startled reactions from both the high-strung Odine and the technicians.

"Open that door!" Zell demanded, moving forward. "Let Rinoa go!"

"Oh, we can't have that," Hojo replied evenly. "Outsiders coming to take our precious specimens? No, no."

"You don't have a choice in the matter," Squall replied, drawing his gunblade, which caused the excitable Odine to yelp and scurry away. Hojo stood unfazed, looking upon Squall as a parent would upon a recalcitrant child.

"Tell me, boy, do you think there's any way to stop this experiemnt?" he answered. "The breeding will begin soon, whether I am alive or dead, but you won't be opening that cell without me or Odine. Only we can operate the controls in the control rooms."

"Well, maybe we can convince you two to help us out," Zell replied, popping his knuckles. "I know a few tricks."

"How barbaric," Hojo relied, sounding bored. "But, if you insist, well, I'm sure that Odine, being himself, has already called for the guards." Hojo smiled as, even then, a gasp of surprise could be heard inside the cell. Everyone looked that way to see the fire-red beast rising into Rinoa's chamber. The creature looked at her once, and growled, stalking around Rinoa as she stood slowly, the beast's tail flicking anxiously.

"Ah, yes, the breeding should begin soon," Hojo commented, nodding, his words drawing shocked expressions from the intruders.

"You sick son of a bitch!" Zell exclaimed. "You're actually going to try to _breed_ them like that?"

"Put a male animal and a female animal in the same cage," Hojo answered, as if it were simple logic. "Wait a while. Simple enough for even you to understand, my impulsive friend."

Squall shook his head at Hojo's blatant insanity to even think that Rinoa and the beast inside the tube would, or even _could_ mate, and ran across the lab, where the creature seemed to be moving more aggressively toward Rinoa. She backed up, against the glass wall, and the creature began to advance, baring its fangs.

"What do you think you can do?" Hojo asked nonchalantly as Squall neared the cell. "That's unbreakable glass, not even you can breach it."

"No," Squall answered, instead shifting to the side, launching a knife at a pipe along the wall, one marked as containing liquid nitrogen. The frozen fluid exploded outward, striking the tank's northern wall and cooling the air inside, turning it into a thick white fog. At the same time, it froze the tank's glass wall, weakening it to the point where a single swipe of Squall's gunblade shattered the glass and ice coating the outside.

The cold air billowed out, followed an instant later by a red form, the creature leaping clear of its cage and hitting the floor. It pivoted once, spinning toward Hojo, and pounced on the scientist with such fluidity and grace as to seem like crimson-colored water. Hojo finally did let out a yelp of surprise as its claws dug into his chest and its jaws closed around his blocking forearm as the scrawny scientist tried to force it off of him.

Squall paid him no mind, as another figure burst from the billowing fog. Rinoa leaped out of her cell, directly at Squall, who blinked in surprise as she pulled him into a tight hug. Finally, after a long second, he reciprocated, squeezing back, but only for a moment, as klaxons suddenly sounded throughout the lab. Technicians scattered, and the creature chewing on Hojo looked up, retracting its claws and letting go of the scientist's arm. The creature's ears twitched as the bloodied Hojo scrambled away, and it looked to the four humans, its good eye flicking over all of them as its mouth opened.

"Guards are approaching," a voice said quietly and camly, and it took a long moment for anyone to realize who had spoken. As Hojo scrambled out the door of the lab, the beast turned toward them, and it _spoke._

"There is a signifigant number," it stated, gesturing back over its shoulder with its head. "We will need to work together to eliminate them all."

"It talked?" Quistis gasped, her confusion matching that of the others. The red-coated creature nodded, an oddly humanlike gesture.

"We can speak as much as you wish later, miss," it replied. "But for now, we must survive. They will be here within moments."

"Right," Squall replied. He was still somewhat off-balance, but he thought back to briefings he'd received about a species of great beasts that possessed human-like or superior intelligence. An unusual ally, but considering the situation, he wasn't picky.

Especially when two dozen and more Shinra soldiers clad in the red uniforms of a response unit burst in through a door on the east side of the room, rifles raised.

The group scattered, splitting apart. Squall pushed Rinoa back behind the ruined glass cell, knowing that she was unarmed and without materia, weakening her. Zell moved to the left, along with Quistis, her wrist flaring with magic as she called energy forth. The red-coated beast simply vanished, a sudden spring that took it out of sight and had those soldiers aiming at it gasping in surprise.

Squall charged right into the middle of the Shinra force, leaping forward with sudden ferocity and landing in the middle of the group, his gunblade spinning around in a wide arcing chop that tore into one man's chest and sliced the arm off a second. He whipped around, blade slicing again and cleaving the head from another man's shoulders, his blue eyes burning with an intense fire. The ex-SeeD realized that in the current situation, only sheer speed and ferocity would overwhelm this numerically superior foe, so when his blade swept low after slicing through a fourth man's torso, Squall charged forward, smashing his shoulder into one man and hurling him back into another, before whipping around with a wide cleave that chopped into yet another soldier, tearing him apart with a blast of the gunblade. Crimson fountains flew as he weaved and struck.

Soldiers fell back from the devastating assault, and Zell and Quistis struck at them, hard. Quistis' whip bit into one man's throat before snapping out and taking another soldier around the arm, the sickle blade wrapping round and slicing it cleanly off. The man scramed in pain, until Zell, who had crushed another soldier's ribcage with a single devastating uppercut, spun toward him and hit him with a roundhouse kick, hurling him into a cluster of other soldiers, taking them all down. Zell barrled into the remander, fists flailing and hurling enemy soldiers around the chamber with crushed torsos, skulls, and limbs. A barrage of ice smashed into another group of soldiers, laying them low, and Quistis' whip chased yet another soldier who had survived the blast, digging into his chest and biting into his heart.

However, the true deciding factor came not from Squall's ferocity or the tag-teaming of Quistis and Zell, but in the fiery beast, who dropped into the middle of the remainder of the soldiers from the catwalk above. One man managed to let out a cry of surprise as the creature pounced on him, then leaped away. The man fell back, a geyser of blood coming from either side of his neck, where the creature 's razor-sharp claws had torn it with incredible speed. It spun around in mid-air, lashing out with all four legs, the forelegs slicing into a soldier's chest as it neared, the rear legs tearing into his neck as it passed. The whip-like tail coiled around another soldier's rifle seemingly of its own accord and tore it free of the man's grasp. The beast then landed on a fourth soldier, bearing him down with its weight, its maw jabbing down like a striking snake before it leaped straight up, spouting blood chasing it in its flight.

The tail snapped again, smashing into another soldier's faceplate hard enough to throw him back with all its deceptive strength, and the beast flipped over as it went up, paws slapping against the underside of the catwalk. It kicked off, propelling itself into another set of soldiers. It bounced away an instant later, claws and fangs freshly painted red, the fallen men clutching at their torn throats as they writhed on the floor.

It skittered low suddenly, diving between the legs of several soldiers, the men howling as claws and teeth lashed out anew, biting into their hamstrings. Two men were tripped up by the striking tail, and one made it to the floor with a ripped throat. The other found the creature on its back, claws digging into his uniform as its powerful jaws grasped his neck. Then, the beast twisted, and the man's vertebrae shattered like glass under the powerful neck muscles of the hunting creature.

Several soldiers fled from the beast as it leaped away again, cleaving through soldiers like a scythe through a field of grass. Those men who fled the monster's wrath found themselves being sliced open as Squall finished the last of the soldiers who would stand against his ferocity, the ex-SeeD smashing into them, gunblade cleaving, each slice accompanied by a river of blood.

The last soldier who had not fled found himself struck down by a gunblade slicing into his gut while the crimson-coated beast leaped past, tearing out his throat with one paw. Zell's final opponent slid to the floor, face shattered by another punch, and the brawler surveyed the carnage.

In less than a minute, twenty-seven Shinra soldiers had been cut, beaten, blasted, and shredded, all of them lying in pools of spreading crimson.

"That's the last of 'em," Zell stated, and Squall nodded.

"Its safe, Rinoa," he called, and she emerged from behind her cover, looking over the pile of twisted, torn corpses without a word.

"We'd better get out of this building," Quistis stated. "We were lucky this time." Squall nodded again, glancing back to the crimson beast.

"You're coming with us, I'm guessing?' he asked, and the creature nodded. "What's your name?"

"The one called Hojo reffered to me as 'Red XIII,'" he replied, the creature's calm words a startling contrast from the ferocious beast that had shredded so many soldiers. "That name means nothing to me, however. You may call me what you wish."

"We'll stick with that name," Squall replied. It suited him, really considering his coloration . . . and the lake of blood and gore he had left.

"What exactly are you?" Zell asked, and Red turned, sizing him up.

"An informed question," he replied. "And difficult to answer. I am what you see, that much is certain. However, explanations may wait, as we must escape from this building first." Red turned is gaze upon the group, settling on Rinoa.

"My apologies," he stated, and she nodded. "I merely had to distract Hojo until your friend noticed the nitrogen pipes." Squall blinked in surprise. How had Red known that he would aim for the pipes, even when he didn't even know they were there?

Perhaps saying that Red was at a human level of intelligence was a disservice.

"The nearest elevator is on Sixty-Six," Squall stated after a moment. "We'll need to head there. The stairwells should provide enough cover for our escape." The others nodded, and Red steped forward, toward the door the soldiers had come through.

"I'll lead the way," he stated, and bounded through. Zell and Quistis followed, and Squall glanced back to Rinoa, who hesitated. he thought for an instant that she was perhaps put off by the carnage, but when her eyes met his, he saw she was actually happy.

Then, to his surprise, she hugged him again.

"I knew you'd come for me," she whispered, pulling tightly. Squall answered more quickly this time, hugging her as well, before releasing her.

"We'll have time to throw a party later," Squall stated. "Let's escape first." She nodded, and together, they turned to leave.

-----------------------

"Ouch," Reno muttered, chuckling. "Guess Hojo got his desserts."

"This is no time for joking," Tseng replied, hand resting on the handle of the sheathed katana by his side. "Twenty-seven men are dead in there." He scowled as he looked at the feed from Hojo's lab.

"That's expected when dealing with someone like that bunch," Reno replied. "Good news is, they'll be feeling all high and mighty when they get on that elevator. And as we all know-"

"- feeling superior will breed carelessness, and that is when we hit them," Rude finished, sliding his brass knuckles onto his hands. "Fujin, Raijin, ready?"

"AFFIRMATIVE," Fujin replied, and her brother nodded, easily twirling his _bo_ staff.

"Ready to rock, ya know!"

"They're getting on the elevator now," Tseng stated, looking back across Level Sixty-Nine and the hundred and more soldiers ready, hiding behind every conceivable bit of cover they could find. "Redirecting . . . now. All troops, stand by. Gas troopers, safeties off."

The soldiers stood tensed, excepting Reno, who leaned against the wall beside the elevator, puffing his cigarette. The seconds ticked by, and suddenly, the doors released a cheery "bing!" and slid open.

"Fire!" Tseng shouted, and a quartet of gas canisters shot into the elevator beyond, accompanied by shouts or surpise and anger. Immediately, a crimson-furred form sailed out of the elevator, landing lightly, and then Red XIII was blasted off his feet as Reno, still leaning against the wall, bull's-eyed him with an electrical shock from his rod. Squall and Zell burst out next, coughing, Squall brandishing his gunblade until Reno casually jabbed him with the tip of the weapon, sending a shock through the ex-SeeD's body, causing him to drop his gunblade. Tseng stepped forward and grabbed Squall, pulling him to the side and slamming him face-first into the wall beside the elevator, before drawing his katana and letting the tip rest against the back of Squall's neck.

Zell was swatted aside by a powerful swing from Raijin, and he rolled away along the floor. Instantly a dozen and more Shinra soldiers fell upon him, beating him with tonfas and rifle-butts.

Quistis stumbled out next, Quistis pulling her whip out, which was then knocked from her grasp as Fujin struck hard with one of her chakram, the bladed ring taking the whip from her hands and pinning it against the wall a mere foot from where Reno stood. Reno almost lazily pointed his weapon at the back of her head, and she froze, before slowly raising her hands, knowing they were caught.

Rinoa was last, and was worst effected by the gas, coughing badly as Rude stepped behind her. He put a foot against the back of one of her knees and pushed her down to the floor, before producing a pair of handcuffs.

Reno finally moved away from the wall, drawing his own cuffs and walking over to Quistis, pulling her hands behind her back.

"Y'know, babe," he commented as he restrained her. "This ain't the first time I've slapped handcuffs on a woman, and it wasn't just for law enforcement reasons." Rude finished restraining Rinoa, while Tseng took Squall's bracer, stripping him of his Guardian Forces, before smashing the butt of his katana against the back of the ex-SeeD's head. Squall's head snapped forward, and he stumbled, before turning back toward Tseng, anger in his shimmering blue eyes.

Then Squall fell unceremoniously to the floor, passing out, while Shinra soldiers restrained Red XIII and continued beating and kicking on Zell, even after he had been smashed into submission.

--------------------

Squall came to shortly afterward, head swimming again. He hadn't been able to get much bearings on his surroundings when hands hoisted him up and dragged him out of whatever room he was in. For a moment he tried fighting them, until he realized he couldn't, as his hands were manacled behind his back. His head was still swimming as he was pushedup a flight of stairs, but it took several long moments before he was able to get his bearings and see his surroundings.

By that time, he realized where they were taking him: Shinra's office.

Beside him, hands bound by heavy-duty chains, the kind used on huge monsters, Zell looked battered and bruised, as if a couple of ogres had used him as a punching bag for an hour or two. Squall also spotted Quistis, and behind them, Red XIII, legs and neck chained, a loose muzzle over his mouth to keep his teeth at bay, and his powerful tail tied back on itself with a zip-tie.

Somewhere along the line the Shinra soldiers had been replaced by Turks, with the five who had jumped them outside the elevator escorting the quartet up into Shinra's domain. They strode up into the office, which was surprisingly spartan in its design, being mostly a huge, wide chamber with a single massive desk, which seemed more of a control panel and monitoring station. Behind this sat Shinra, his face lit by the dozens of monitors as he puffed another cigar. Finally, the head of Shinra looked up, smiling at his prisoners.

Zell spat a stream of blood in response.

"Where is Rinoa?" Squall demanded immediately.

"In a safe place," Shinra replied, rounding his desk, puffing his cigar the whole way. "As the last surviving Ancient, we have to take good care of her."

"Ancient," Red XIII muttered through his muzzle. "You mean the Cetra?" Shinra nodded.

"They lived thousands of years ago," he stated, then sighed, almost regretfully. "But now they are lost to us. Just a forgotten page in history."

"So, that girl was a Cetra," Red mused, and Shinra nodded.

"The Ancients, or Cetra, or whatever you want to call them," Shinra replied, taking another draw on his cigar. "They will lead us to the 'Promised Land.' I'm expecting a lot out of her."

"The 'Promised Land?'" Red asked. "That's just a legend . . . ."

"Even so," Shinra replied, grinning, "Its too tempting. The 'Promised Land' is supposed to be fertile, incredibly fertile, abundant with life and vitality. And if that's true-"

"Mako," Zell spat and Shinra's smile widened.

"Indeed. Our costly Mako reactors may actually be unnecassary. The abundant Mako will simply flow out on its own. And there is where Neo-Midgar will be built. Shinra's new glory . . . ."

"Bullshit!" Zell replied, shaking his head. "No way! You're chasing a dream!" Shinra replied with a bark of laughter and another small cloud of smoke wafted from his cigar.

"All you need to make your dreams come true nowadays is money and power," he replied. "Now, I believe this meeting is ended. I'm a busy man."

"Like hell!" Zell replied, even as the Turks stepped forward and began pushing the prisoners toward the stairs. Rude and Raijin hooked their arms underneath Zell's and pulled him away. He fought back, thrashing madly.

"Get back here, you filthy slob! I gotta lot to say to you!" Zell continued shouting and fighting, even as the two Turks dragged him down the stairs and out of Shinra's sight. He watched the brawler leave, a smug smile on the executive's face.

"If there's anything else," he stated calmly, even with the prisoners long out of hearing range. "Talk with my secretary.

--------------------

They dumped them in a pair of cells on the Sixty-Seventh floor. Zell was put in the same room as Red XIII, and Quistis ended up with Squall. Pretty much from the instant that the door slid shut, Squall was checking their room for anything particularly useful. In that regard, he was out of luck, as, aside from a bunk cot on one wall and a toilet, there was nothing of any use in the cell, not even a blanket. The toilet didn't even have any screws he could remove, allowing him to pull it up. Somone had been thorough with their designing of the prison cells.

"So that's it?" Quistis asked as he finished his inspection, and Squall nodded. She sighed and sat down on the lower bunk, settling back.

"I didn't think it would end like this," she commented with a shake of her head.

"Its not over yet," Squall replied definitively. "We'll get our chance to escape."

"You think so?" Squall nodded again, settling against a wall.

"We'd better rest up," he stated. "We want to be alert for when our chance comes."

" . . . Squall?" a voice came faintly from behind where Squall had sat, and he looked up.

"Rinoa?" he called. "You're in there too?"

"Yeah," she replied. "I'm not surprised they isolated me from everyone."

"Don't worry," he called. "I'll get you out."

"Well, you are my bodyguard, right?" she replied with a giggle. "You still haven't collected your pay yet, either."

"Pay?" he asked. "Oh, the date, right."

"Date?" Qusitis asked, arching her eyebrow in surprise. "I thought such concepts were beyond you, Squall."

"Quistis is in there too?" Rinoa asked.

"Yeah," Squall replied. "Zell and Red are in the next cell down."

"Hmm." Rinoa didn't say anything else for a bit, and they waited in silence. Well, they would have if they hadn't heard Zell ranting in the next room about how he was going to pay back Shinra.

"Like hell I'm letting them get to the 'Promised Land,'" he proclaimed, and Squall had no difficulty imagining him throwing punches at his shadow while doing this. "If they get there, they'll suck up all that Mako and make the planet even weaker. Hell no! I can't let that happen, not while I can still fight. They can lock me up, but I'll just kick every wall in and beat their asses! Can't nothing hold back my _ki_, or what my grandpa taught me! Me, and Squall, and Quistis, and Xu, and Watts and Zone, and even Rinoa! We're gonna rise up and smash these bastards into the dust! What about you?"

Apparently, he was addressing Red, but the crimson-furred creature didn't reply. In fact, from the sounds of heavy, regular breathing, Red XIII was asleep.

"Man, for something so weird, you sure are boring," Zell complained, and Squall heard him slump to the floor.

"Rinoa," Quistis called a moment later, standing up off the bed. "Tell me something."

"Hm?" she replied.

"Does the 'Promised Land' really exist?"

"I don't know," Rinoa honestly replied. "All I know is . . . the Cetra were born from the planet, speak with the planet, and can unlock the planet. And then, the Cetra will return to the 'Promised Land.' A place that promises supreme happiness."

"What does that mean?" Quistis asked.

"I don't know," Rinoa replied. "Its more than words, but . . . I don't know."

"Speak with the planet?" Squall asked. "What do you mean?"

"Its hard to describe to an outsider," Rinoa replied uneasily.

"What does it say?' Quistis asked next.

"Its noisy," Rinoa replied. "Full of people. I can't hear much of what they are saying. The only place I could really hear it was either at home or at the church. My mother kept saying it wasn't safe here in Midgar . . . that is, my real mother."

Squall heard Rinoa sitting down on the bunk.

"She said some day I would get out of Midgar," Rinoa added. "She said I would speak to the planet somewhere safe, and there . . . I would find my own 'Promised Land' . . . ."

Rinoa trailed off, leaving Squall with a lot more questions than answers. After a moment, he shook his head. He knew right now that there was only one real question in need of answering. How the hell would they get out of here?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First off, this chapter was...bloody. Blame it on Hellsing, I was watching that anime just a while ago. Though the sheer bloodiness comes out even moreso in the next chapter...

And now...for breaking news! Shout-outs have returned! Yes! Review my fic, and I will answer questions, make comments, and generally communicate with my loyal readers in the next chapter. So, without further ado, the first shout-outs for Bittersweet Synthesis. I'm only hitting the more recent reviews, as many questions asked by those have already been answered by the story and my comments. If you want a shout out, send me a new review! If you have the time, of course.

OniRazz: To answer your question about Synthesis, three of the characters from FFVII will be present, as will Sephiroth, Jenova, Shinra, the Turks, etc.

Daniel Wesley Rydall: Ah, I like your reviews. Detailed. I like Xu myself, she gives me a lot of leeway on her style and approach. Unfortunately, she won't be making too huge an appearance in this story. About Quistis' use of the whip, I agree that I didn't flesh that out properly and state how secure the whip was around the pipe. I was in a bit of a hurry to get done with a part that was really hard to properly write. Also, about Zell and Zone, I didn't have Zell pull him back, but rather try to drag Zell backward. He didn't exactly suceed at stopping Zell, though he could have maybe lifted him up slightly. Thanks for telling me about that.

Angel-Broken-Sorrow: I always look forward to your reviews, actually. My consistent reviewer! I cut out the cross-dresisng scene because...well, I didn't like it, and while Cloud might have settled for it, I think Squall would never have even considered it. XD Iyt could have been worse, I could have followed Peter Marcroft's strategy and have Squall disguise himself as a pimp! And yeah, Wedge dies along with the other two AVALANCHE members in FFVII.

Cloud-Strife-2004: Actually,t he idea to place FFVII characters into FFVIII was bouncing around in my head for a while, and the notion is appealing, though i'd rather get done with all the projects I'm working on now! XD One thing i decided for certian is that Cid will replace Cid, if you get my meaning. Doing something like that is inherently difficult, as the world of FFVII will readily accept FFVIII characters in these roles, but the same can't be said the other way around without drastic changes to the storyline, thus making Which is part of the fun. Glad to see I've inspired you. Good luck, write well, and never, ever give in.

Prodigy: THE MAN! An interesting idea...I like it, actually. And never fear, Sephiroth will be here. Hey, that rhymes.


	9. The Nightmare Awakens

_Chapter 8: The Nightmare Awakens_

"There it is!" came a frantic call from ahead as the Shinra fire team rushed down the hall.

"Fire! Fire, Hynedammit!" An officer barked orders, and in response a stream of gunfire answered as the men under his command opened up. For several long seconds a quartet of rifles pumped rivers of steel down the hallway ahead, their muzzle flashes lighting the darkened corridor. Then, abruptly, the shouts and commands turned to screams as the gunfire slackened.

From around the bend, two Shinra soldiers, one in blue and the other in the green of a field officer, scrambled around the corner. Or at least, the soldier was able to, as the officer glanced back over his shoulder, and then simply broke apart as a flash of silver tore into his body. Blood erupted from his bisected corpse, and a strangled scream came from the officer as he died.

The surviving soldier saw his comrades approaching, with more men behind them, and waved his hands desperately. He wasn't asking for aid, however.

He was telling his fellow soldiers to fall back.

"We can't stop it!" he shouted, and then, a shadow rounded the corner, two green orbs shining where the head would be on a human. Then, the soldier simply died, a quick, brutal death accompanied by anther flash of silver and a _whoosh_ of displaced air that broke the hapless trooper into three pieces.

The approaching soldiers skidded to a halt and leveled their weapons as one, spreading out across the corridor before opening fire.

Their muzzles flashed, the rifles kicked and spent casings clattered to the floor, but it seemed as if the men weren't even firing their weapons, as the shadow advanced inexorably, ignoring the bullets. The flashes from the rifles reflected off an impossibly long, curved, and wickedly sharp nodachi that the figure held in its hands as it took one, then two, then three deliberate steps forward.

And then, before the soldiers could even twitch, it was there, right on them, and two of Shinra soldiers' heads went flying. Another fell back, his chest ruptured and weapon bisected by the huge blade, and he screamed as his blood ran down his uniform. The last man had somehow avoided the blade, and, terrified of this reaper of souls, backed away, firing madly, until his weapon simply ran out of ammunition. He looked down at his rifle as if it had betrayed him, and threw it aside, before grabbing for his sidearm.

The blade flashed, and the soldier's arm, hand grasping the pistol, flopped to the floor, accompanied by a geyser of crimson. He didn't even realize he was injured before the figure sliced again, this time taking his legs at the knees and dropping him to the floor. Now he screamed, his left arm flailing, as his lifeblood poured out.

The shadow turned away and advanced further down the hallway, where two squads of Shinra soldiers were setting up a defensive point, complete with mounted machineguns and a pair of rocket launchers. Two members of SeeD directed the defensive point, at least until they realized the shadow was advancing.

A squad of soldiers bravely moved ahead, trying to slow the advancing shadow down. They leveled their rifles at the shining green orbs at its head and opened fire.

Then they were on fire, immolated as the shadow gestured at them and released a shockwave of devastating pyrotechnics. Most of the Shinra squad was either killed instantly or thrown to the floor, where they screamed and writhed in the hellish inferno. Two men managed to dive forward and underneath the fiery cataclysm, but then, as they stood, they found themselves facing the shadow itself.

A hand, muscles and tendons as tight and unbreakable as reinforced steel, clasped over one man's throat, lifting him into the air and suffocating him. The other soldier stepped back, trying to get out of range, but the nodachi jabbed forward, impaling the man in his stomach, before sweeping upward, slicing up into his chest and head, and exploding out the top of his skull. The shadow's shining eyes turned back to the doomed soldier held in its grasp, and the man began to mutter a helpless prayer to Hyne. The shadow's wrist flicked, and he went flying into a wall headfirst, where he felt a sudden hot explosion on the top of his head, and then knew no more.

The mounted machineguns were loaded and cocked in the few seconds that the dead men had bought, and the soldiers manning them shouted cries of vengance as they opened fire.

Then the shadow was suddenly behind them, even as the first bullets began to tear down the corridor. The doomed soldiers didn't even realize they were dead, except for one man, toting one of the rocket launchers, who managed to cry out as the shadow simply materialized behind the defensive point and came around, nodachi slicing into the confused gunners and shredding them instantly.

The man with the missile launcher set his teeth and steeled hismelf, before pointing his launcher at his opponent. They were at point-blank range, and it would be impossible to miss, but the man knew he was dead anyway at such a short range. He leveled the weapon and launched the rocket, knowing that even if the lethal shadow did not kill him, the explosion would.

The shadow wheeled around and slapped the rocket with its left arm, hurling it down the corridor to explode harmlessly. The soldier who had fired fell away, muttering something incoherently, and then the blade sliced in.

The shadow turned back down the hallway, to see the remains of the group of defenders, the pair of SeeDs who had been commanding the group. As one, the two masterfully trained and supremely deadly warriors drew their swords, standing before the door that would allow the shadow access to the upper levels. Wordlessly, the two men charged, blades raised.

They came in from opposite sides, a perfectly coordinated assault that would cleave apart any normal opponent. But this was far from a normal opponent, and the nodachi seemed to weave effortlessly between their two strokes and deflect the swords out wide. The shadow's left arm lashed out suddenly, batting aside the SeeD on its left, while the nodachi swept back around and struck at the right SeeD. The SeeD was able to deflect the blade, however, being no novice to battle, and countered with a quick jab at the shadow's chest. Somehow the nodachi managed to get back around, the huge, awkward blade parrying the smaller sword with surprising ease. Then, the shadow rippled forward, smashing its shoulder into the SeeD and throwing him back hard against the wall. Then, the shadow simply gestured, and the SeeD was engulfed in flames, an intense fire that killed the man almost instantly.

The shadow turned away from that dying SeeD, to see the other lying next to the door he had been guarding, still stunned by the powerful hit. The shadow stalked forward, bringing the nodachi low by its side, and as it neared the door, its suddenly charged forward. The SeeD was barely able to recover his bearings before the shadow passed, smashing through the door, the nodachi slicing through the wall where the SeeD's neck was located. Behind the shadow, blood slowly seeped around the side of the door, pouring from the dead SeeD's neck.

The shadow surveyed the room beyond, and smiled wickedly as more Shinra soldiers rushed in from doors all around, trying to intercept this reaper that had stolen so many lives in its rampage through the Shinra Building.

--------------------

It was a smell he was all too familiar with, and one that had him ready for battle even as he returned to the waking world. Squall opened his eyes fully alert, and was on his feet in an instant, dropping into a low, balanced combat crouch as he sniffed to air once more to confirm what his instincts were telling him.

Blood. He smelled blood.

Then he saw his door, the metal blasted inward as it it had been smashed by a massive hammer.

He roused Quistis immediately, and as she awoke, Squall stepped outside, and almost into a puddle of blood that was slowly seeping across the floor. A quick glance showed from whence the blood was coming, as up the hallway, near the corner that led to the main hallway on this level, was a pile of twisted and torn bodies heaped along one wall.

A gasp from behind him told Squall that Quistis was up and had seen the carnage.

"What happened?" she asked as Squall stepped out, his boots moving through he blood. Squall shook his head as he stepped, looking at the tangle of corpses.

"Someone piled them here," he stated, crouching next to the dead bodies. He looked around, then nodded as he reached into one of the pockets, removing a keycard. "Free the others. I'll go scout ahead, see if whatever it was is still here." Quistis nodded and they split, Squall running down the hallway while Quistis returned to the cells, unlocking Rinoa's first. She was already awake and alert, and wasn't surprised when Quistis opened her cell.

"What happened out there?" she asked, standing up off her bed. Quistis shook her head, not sure, instead stepping back outside to open Zell and Red's cell. The door slid open, and Quistis had to leap back out of the way as Red pounced out of the cell, landing easily with his tail taut. Zell was a step behind, alert and ready, in a low combat crouch. A moment later, he let out a low whistle at the pile of dead bodies and the lake of crimson.

"So, this is what Red heard," Zell whispered, shaking his head.

"More than just this," Red replied, shaking his head.

"There was a battle in the building," Rinoa added, and Red nodded.

"How did you know?" Quistis asked her, but she just shook her head and gave a shrug, the best explanation she could give for someone who could not hear the planet as she could.

"She's right," Squall added, coming back around the corner, carrying his gunblade in one hand and with Quistis' whip, Rinoa's crossbow and staff, and everyone's materia and bracers in hand. His Guardian Force bracer was barely visible underneath his jacket sleeve. "Everyone is dead. And I don't think any human could have done this."

"What do you mean?" Quistis asked as she and Rinoa took their weapons back.

"There were hundreds of bullet casings in one hallway alone, but only a few bullet holes." Squall replied. "Nothing should have survived that many hits. From the way the defenses were set up, the Shinra soldiers were well-organized, too."

"And it still defeated them," Red replied, and Squall nodded grimly.

"What the hell could have done that?" Zell asked.

No one had an answer.

Squall led them past the grisly pile of corpses, out into the hallway beyond. They soon passed a room which had clearly been an armory, judging by the racks that normally would have held weapons and ammunition, but were now empty. It was obvious that this was where Squall had recovered their weapons from. A few scattered magazines lay across the floor, and loose bullets were strewn around the room. A Shinra soldier was impaled on a twisted bar from one of the racks, one arm chopped off at the elbow.

Zell paused in at this room and glanced inside, before looking down at his jacket, which was tattered from all the close calls and conflicts thus far. It looked ready to fall apart, and that might interfere with combat in the future. With a pang of regret (the jacket looked _really_ cool) Zell took it off and replaced it with a drab, light brown sleeveless vest hanging on one of the racks. There were a few flecks of blood on it, but nothing much. His outfit updated, Zell rejoined the party.

They moved past that room, and soon entered a longer hallway, strewn with dozens of corpses, or pieces thereof. Blood was spread in pools and smears along the walls, and crimson footprints marked the aggresor's path, a deliberate, unyielding path marked by streamers of blood and bodies cleaved apart. Both civilians and Shinra soldiers lay in crumpled heaps as the killer's steps meandered through the halls, as if it had been deliberately trying to get as many opponents and victims in its path as possible.

The road paved in corpses led to the huge storage bay where Jenova had been kept, and Squall was unsurprised to see the dome broken open, and the thing within taken. The blood trail led past a squad of men who seemed to have been shredded by claws and immolated by fire, and into the elevator leading up to Hojo and Odine's lab.

The lab wasn't any better, but the path of blood and bodies took a more linear route, straight through the door out of the lab and toward the stairwell leading to the higher levels. Neither Hojo nor Odine were among the sprawled and bisected corpses scattered among the halls, Squall noted, as he and Red led the group through the environment. They ascended the stairwell and continued up, reaching the sixty-ninth floor, where they found Shinra had made a brutal last stand in the foyer leading up to the president's office. Nearly a hundred men lay in several hundred pieces across the floor and along the steps, and the marble floor itself was impossible to see beyond the blood, bullet casings, weapons, and bodies that covered the floor like a macabre carpet. Blood led up to the Presiden't office.

The group moved up, and momentarily were surprised to see Alexander Louis Shinra sitting behind his desk, upright, staring straight ahead with open eyes, and for a moment, the quintet thought Shinra had somehow survived the carnage.

That was, until they saw the bloody nodachi poking through the man's stomach, the blade stabbed through the back of his chair and out the front of his body.

"So, he's dead," Zell spat as they crossed the room. "Good riddance. I owe whoever did this a beer and a high-five."

Squall shook his head at the words, crossing around behind the desk, and looking at the nodachi. He was inspecting it when he suddenly wheeled, a knife sliding from his sleeve and at a man he'd seen hiding behind a pillar. The man yelped in surprised panic as he tried to flee, but found the blade of the knife pinning the collar of his tan suit to the pillar.

"Palmer, you fat bastard!" Zell shouted, crossing the room to where the overweight executive was trembling in terror.

"You saw what happened here?" Quistis asked, and the shaking man nodded hesitantly.

"It was . . . it was _him!_" the man stammered out.

"Who?" Zell demanded.

"Sephiroth," Squall and Palmer stated at the same time. Palmer glanced at Squall, who stared grimly at the impossibly long sword.

"This was done one-handed," Squal muttered, looking at the penetration and how the blade had curved up through Shinra. "A one handed thrust with a sword like this. Only one man has the strength and control to manuver a weapon like that."

"Sephiroth," Palmer repeated.

"You're sure?" Zell demanded.

"Why would I lie?" Palmer squealed. "I heard his voice when he came up here. His sword was covered in blood, but none of it touched him. H-he was saying something about how he wouldn't let Shinra get the Promised Land right before he started laughing like a madman. Then, the president was dead and he was gone! I didn't even see him move!"

"Then it exists?" Quistis asked. "Sephiroth's here to save the Promised Land from Shinra?"

"No," Squall answered immediately. "Sephiroth's no hero. I know what he wants." His face turned even more grim as he looked back at the blade. "He's still alive . . . ."

Their conversation was cut short as the repetitive thwipping of a helicopter's blades neared the top-level office. The group turned as one as the helicopter neared, and out one of the panoramic windows they could see the helicopter nearing a private landing pad on the balcony outside Shinra's office. Standing in the open door was a tall, blonde figure in a spotless white coat.

"Shit," Zell spat. "Its Rufus Shinra, the president's son. Forgot about him. Probably flew in from Junon the second he heard the place was under attack."

The helicopter circled a couple of times, like a vulture circling prey. As they watched its flight, Squall looked down to the blood-soaked monitors around Shinra's desk, and frowned.

"We've got company," he muttered, waving everyone over. Zell left Palmer behind, and the group gathered around the desk to look at the monitor which Squall was observing, which was connected to the Shinra Media Center on a level far below, bringing them a live feed from a news crew outside the Shinra Building. The camera was pointed at a reporter who was even then interviewing the green-clad Heidegger, who wore a helmet and headset. beyonfd the Shinra commander was a virtual sea of soldiers, tanks, jeeps, and other military hardware, all surrounding the Shinra headquarters.

_"No, no, not at this time," _Heidegger was saying with a shake of his head. _"We do not have plans to reenter the building immediately, at least not until we have determined whether the threat remains. However, we can confirm that a high-ranking official has been killed along with at least three hundred workers and soldiers, though we don't have an upper limit to that number. Right now, Rufus Shinra and a small strike team are dropping onto the rooftop office to assess the situation. We do have an armored probe unit moving in to get a preliminary estimate on damages and casualties inside the building itself. Once we have a general understanding of what we're dealing with, we will storm the building."_

_"How long has it been since the first report of an attack?" _the reporter asked. Heidegger glanced at his watch.

_"Approximately five hours ago," _he stated. _"Give or take. Whoever the attacker or attackers were, we haven't had any updates on them in the last twenty minutes. We do know there are some terrorists within the building under our custody, though it could well be that they have escaped and inflicted this carnage."_

"Shit, they're blaming this on us?" Zell muttered, and Squall nodded as the helicopter closed in.

"Looks like he's finished circling," the ex-SeeD stated, turning toward the balcony.

"Let's give him a warm reception," Zell added, striding forward, leading the quintet outside into the polluted Midgar air as the helicopter floated near the balcony. From inside the transport, several red-clad soldiers tensed, but a wave from Rufus had them standing down. Rufus kicked a rope ladder off the side of the helicopter and began to descend, dropping to the balcony, his blonde hair flying in the helicopter rotors' area of effect.

Rufus turned to face the quintet, scrutinizing them with icy eyes. He was young, barely out of his teens, but his bearing and gaze spoke of an unusual wisdom and incredibly sharp intellect. His outfit was spotlessly white, including a white trenchcoat that featured a large, noticable bulge, obviously a hidden weapon.

Rufus Shinra nodded their way as he saw them.

"Sephiroth was here," he commented. "And yet he left someone alive? Who are you?"

"Zell Dincht, bitch!" Zell replied, jabbing a finger into his chest. "Head of AVALANCHE, and don't forget about it when I paste your ass! That's Quistis, my second." He jabbed a finger toward Quistis, who nodded. Rufus grinned, looking across the group, nodding as he finally recognized each of them.

"I know the rest of you," he replied. "Though just vaguely. You're that lab specimen Hojo had my men capture," he added, looking to Red XIII. The fiery beast narrowed his good eye.

"And you're the Ancient my father was so ecstatic about recovering," Rufus continued, looking to Rinoa. "And you," he finished, looking to Squall. "The traitor I've heard so much about. What a crew. Well, as you probably already know, I'm Rufus Shinra, head of Shinra Inc."

"Ownership passes down from the big rat to the little rat," Zell muttered, and Rufus chuckled.

"I suppose you could say that," he admitted. "And since you're the only audience available right now, I'll share a _special_ inuguaration speech with you." He strode toward them, hands open as a sign of no threat.

"My old man tried things too hard," he began, crossing the balcony. "His approach was . . . inefficient. He tried using money to keep the people in line, and it seemed to have worked. People obeyed Shinra. They worked for us, got their pay, spent it on Shinra power and Mako, and continued to generate profits."

Rufus threaded between Squall and Zell, hands clasped behind his back in thought.

"But it takes too much to do it like him, especially since, as we have seen, not everyone can be cowed by mere monetary power alone. But, there is another source of power that can cow even the mightiest foe. Do you know what that is?" He stopped in front of Quistis, meeting her eyes, then turned away, stepping between Rinoa and Red.

"Fear," he answered his own question. "Fear will keep them all in line. Its the most primal source of power, after all, and quite effective. It takes too much to do it like my father, so I will control the world through fear instead of wasting money on the people." Rufus stopped as he neared his original spot, and looked back.

"How'd it go?"

"Bunch of hot air," Zell replied, shaking his head.

"I suppose my fine skill is wasted on you," Rufus replied with a shrug. "Oh, well. I guess it doesn't matter. Spending words on people who are either dead or never escaping again is meaningless anyway."

"Dead?" Quistis echoed, and Rufus' words had everyone sliding uneasily into combat stances.

"Someone needs to be blamed, and due to our . . . unpleasant history with Sephiroth, we can't exactly blame him for it. But who will be our scapegoat? I can think of none better than a ragtag band of terroists led by a cruel and inhuman traitor. Your executions will set records for the Media Center's ratings, or at least, those of you three. Can't let such valuable specimens be lost, now can we? Now, will you return to your cells, or will you be killed trying to finish off the last of the Shinra bloodline?"

"How about neither?" Squall answered, shaking his head. "Zell, get them out of here. I'll deal with him."

"But-" Zell began to protest.

"Now!" Squall replied, pointing his gunblade at Rufus. "Cut off the hydra's head and the body will be stunned. Get out of here, we have more important things to deal with!"

"He means Sephiroth," Rufus clarified, seeming bored. "Its not like you can escape, even if you kill me. There's an entire Shinra army waiting for you five downstairs, and they have express orders to shoot on sight, with or without my authorization. You can't escape. Don't try to, either, you'll just die tired."

"Get out of here," Squall reiterated, advancing toward Shinra. Behind him, Zell nodded, and the others broke away, Red first, with Zell grabbing the shoulders of both Quistis and Rinoa, the two women hesitant to leave him behind. Finally, they too turned and ran from the balcony, into Shinra's office, and down the stairs. Well, most of them. Halfway down the steps, quistis paused, looking back up the stairway at the office above.

"What are you waiting for?" Zell demanded, stopping and spinning back, while Red bounded on.

"Go on," Quistis replied quickly, looking up. "I'll catch up. I have to wait on him, just in case he needs me."

"Well, take care of yourself," Zell replied after a moment of consideration. "C'mon, Rinoa, let's get the hell out of here!"

--------------------

"Why do you insist on this nonsense?" Rufus asked Squall as the two faced off, the young president circling around Squall.

"A distraction," Squall stated honestly. "I'm pretty sure this is being broadcast live for the world to see, right?"

"Not exactly, though we can if you like," Rufus replied with a grin. "But this can't be all your reason for wanting to kill me. You file doesn't speak of you in this way."

"You want the Promised Land," Squall replied. "Can't let either you or Sephiroth have it."

"If that's the case . . . ." Rufus muttered, shaking his head. "I guess I have no choice-" from his sleeve a green light suddenly flared. "-but to entertain you!"

Squall was moving forward in an instant, the Revolver thrusting forward as Rufus tore a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun from within his coat.A faint dome of light resolved itself around Rufus a second before the Revolver dove home. The gunblade was deflected aside, the magic of Rufus' barrier spell protecting its caster. The Shinra president grinned and leveled his shotgun at Squall at almost point-blank range.

The ex-SeeD threw himself backward, rolling away from the blasting buckshot as Rufus pulled the trigger. The pellets sliced along Squall's jacket, and some of it actually struck his skin, but his Guardian Forces defended Squall from the damage. Squall landed on his feet and rushed forward, gunblade slicing in once more, the blade impacting along the the shield. Squall squeezed the trigger on his weapon as it struck, and a blast of concussive energy shattered Rufus's shield. Squall couldn't continue the assault, however, being forced to spin away in another evasive manuever as Rufus fired a second shot from his weapon at close range. Squall once again moved back and away in an evasive dive, and Rufus leaped back as well, widening the gap . The president cracked open his shotgun, and slid a pair of shells into the barrel, before snapping it shut.

Squall leaped forward again, trying to get at Rufus during his moment of vulnerability, but had to break off as Rufus fired his shotgun again, one-handed. Squall leaped aside, even as another green flare emerged from beneath the President's sleeve. Knowing Rufus was even then preparing another barrier spell, Squall charged forward again, racing to get to Rufus before the spell could complete.

His gunblade swooped in, and Squall thought he had beaten the magic, until the weapon was stopped bare inches from Rufus' neck. The president grinned as his shotgun jabbed forward, into Squall's ribs, the barrel still hot from the last firing. At that close range, it would kill even him.

"Not as good as you thought you were?" Rufus taunted, and Squall grimaced, before closing his eyes, as if accepting his fate, though he leaned back somewhat, settling back on his feet.

"A true SeeD never gives up," the young president taunted, pulling the trigger.

The shotgun fired, and the buckshot flew wildly, deflecting off a crimson shield of energy that had formed in front of Squall. The ex-SeeD opened his eyes, and then the air burned.

A great portal of fire formed in the air between Rufus and Squall, emitting heat as intense as if a gateway to the furnaces that fueled Hell's fires had been opened. And from this hellish portal came a great monster. No, not a monster, a demon, a mighty Guardian Force of fire known as Ifrit.

The Guardian Force was huge, twice a human's height and, if he were flesh and bone, would have weighed at least ten times that of any normal person. He stood on thick, dog-like, heavily muscled legs. Ifrit's chest was massive, at least six feet wide, and was also heavily muscled. Also powerfully built were his thick shoulders, as wide around as Squall's chest, along with Ifrit's mighty biceps and forearms. His fingers and toes were tipped with black claws, and his hide was a dark brown, as if cooked by the hellish flames the Guardian Force commanded. His growling visage looked like that of a hell-spawned lion or panther, and a pair of huge, slender black horns rose from the top of his head and curved back, extending out nearly ten feet. The Guardian Force had long red hair that ran down his back, and also a short red beard around his jawline. Ifrit's eyes glowed yellow, like molten gold, and had no irises or pupils.

The demon Guardian Force looked down at Rufus Shinra, fires rippling down its hands as the president fell back, his sleeve flaring green once more as he desperately erected another defensive spell. Ifrit threw a palm toward the president almost casually, and a gout of flame erupted toward the shocked head of Shinra. That fire would have utterly annihilated him, too, had it not been for the hasty but effective magical defense barrier Rufus had formed, the magical cone's tip deflecting the fire around Rufus and off the balcony.

Ifrit loosed a second wave of fire, but it, too, was deflected. Roaring in fury, Ifrit loosed a blast of flame from both hands, and though the flames were doubly intense, the inferno did not directly touch Rufus Shinra.

The Guardian Force's assault finished and its brief time in this world ended, Ifrit vanishing in the fires, fading away like broken embers.

"You were right," Squall replied as he cast a healing spell upon himself, restorative energy cascading down his body, mending his wounds. He looked to the singed Rufus, whose shield broke down and left the young president vulnerable to attack. Squall leveled his gunblade at Rufus.

"I didn't give up," he stated, and then began to rush Rufus. The president fell back, leaping away and onto the railing of the balcony, before jumping off with a smirk. Squall froze at the seemingly suicidal manuever, and then saw the helicopter rise up past his position, Rufus hanging onto the rope ladder that still hung from the open door. Then, Rufus was gone.

Squall watched the helicopter depart, but only for a second before turning away and running back into the office. He bounded down the blood-stained stairs, where Quistis was waiting for him. She opened her mouth to ask a question, but Squall shook his head.

"Rufus got away," he stated. "This is probably going to mean trouble for all of us. Let's get down to the ground floor."

--------------------

Zell and Rinoa found Red XIII waiting at the elevator, the doors already open. Red stood inside patiently as they stepped inside, and Zell wondered how the fiery creature had managed to get into the elevator. His unspoken question was answered immediately as the pair cleared the doors, as Red rose up on his hind legs and pressed a button with on of his paws, the digits moving with surprising dexterity. Zell noted that, despite their appearance, Red XIII's digits were jointed and shaped almost like shortened, human fingers.

The elevator immediately began descending toward the ground floor.

"I assume this is where we intend to go?" he asked, and Zell nodded.

"Straight down," the martial artist replied. "We'll go from there, though I think there's something downstairs that could come in handy."

They rode down in silence for a long while, looking out over the city. Far below, the trio could make out a ring of Shinra armament surrounding the building, and for Red's own incredible eyesight, he could make out the individual soldiers scurrying around or readying weaponry. They were soon past Level Sixty.

Then the glass suddenly shattered, and Zell pulled Rinoa down to the floor of the elevator. Bullets tore past well overhead, clearly intended to shatter the glass as opposed to hitting the occupants.

"Shinra weapon!" Red shouted, peeking over the edge of the floor of the elevator. Zell crawled forward, joining him, in time to see some type of armored Shinra reconniasance tank riding a heavy open-air cargo elevator, the lift rising up toward their elevator while theirs descended. It featured an armored turret on top, and bristled with machineguns and cannons. The elevator continued to descend, while the armored vehicle rose above them. Then, suddenly, both elevators froze where they were, the tank depressing its turret toward the trio of escapees, now in a perfect firing position.

"Shit!" Zell hissed, but Red rose, his muscles tensing.

"We'll only get one chance at this," he replied. "You said you were trained by Zangan, correct?" he asked Zell, who nodded.

"My grandpa," he replied. "Wait a sec. You were awake that whole time?"

"My kind doesn't sleep," Red replied simply.

_"Put your hands and other appendages in the air!"_ came a sudden, amplified call from the tank. _"Surrender now or we will open fire!"_

"No time for explanations," he added, crouching low in preparation for a jump. "We must leap across! Its our only chance!"

"Right!" Zell turned back to Rinoa, holding a hand toward her. She grabbed it, and leaped onto his back, looping her hands around Zell's neck.

"I've been doing this too much lately," she muttered into his ear. Zell chuckled, and bent his knees.

"Okay, jump!" he shouted, and both he and Red XIII leaped with all their power, Zell channeling his _ki_ into his leg muscles for an incredibly powerful leap, while Red's corded and perfectly developed leg muscles allowed him to spring across the gap, flying like a whispering gust of wind.

The trio crossed the gap without incident, the crew of the tank too shocked by the impossible leaps to react, until the trio of escapees had landed lightly on the same platform as the tank. One of the machineguns spun to point at Red, but Zell snapped a leg up, his still enhanced foot smashing into the barrel and bending it viciously.

A hatch on top of the tank opened, and an assault rifle poked out. The man wielding it rose out of the hatch as well, and took the butt of Rinoa's staff to the face for his trouble, the girl thrusting it up over the top. The man's head snapped back from the impact, and then Red leaped up on top of the tank, latching his claws into the soldier's shoulders and pulling him up and out of the tank. Red sank his teeth into the man's neck, and then swung around, his neck snapping like a striking snake, hurling the stricken man clear off the platform.

In the meantime, Zell had skittered around to the rear of the tank. He set his feet against the floor, spat into his gloved hands and slapped them together, then planted his palms against the backside of the tank. Focusing his inner energy, he grunted, strained, and _pushed_.

From within the tank, there came shouts of surprise and an exclamation of fear as the tank suddenly shifted forward. The men inside didn't understand what was happening as the tank slid across the floor, Zell pushing it with all his might. His veins popped out as his muscles corded, and with all the superhuman energy he could muster, the martial artist shoved the tank toward the edge of the platform.

From within the tank, the remaining soldiers suddenly realized what was wrong, and one of them began to hastily scramble out of the top of the vehicle. Red's claws were waiting for him.

The tank lurched as its front wheels passed over the edge, and then Zell roared a cry of both exertion and triumph. The tank lurched forward one last time, and then it toppled off the edge of the platform, Red leaping back and away from it with nimble ease. The recon tank plummeted into the darkness below, crashing heavily into the pavement many stories beneath.

"Now that that's dealt with," Zell added, glancing around the platform. He spotted a control panel, and stepped over to it, activating it.

"This elevator will probably drop us into a cargo storage area, but if the tank came from it, its probably gonna be crawling with Shinra goons," Zell stated. "So, we're gonna stop it a few levels below and send it further down after we hop off."

"How will we get down?" Red asked, and Zell shrugged.

"We came up via the stairwell," he replied. The martial artist rubbed his thighs. "At least it'll be easier going back down!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that was fun. BLOOD AND DEATH! The begining of the chapter was inspired by both Hellsing and the hallway cutscene from Metal Gear Solid. Sephiroth reminds me of an excessively evil Alucard....

And the next chapter is going to rock. One of my big gripes about FFVIII was the lack of a real car chase sequence, and in none of the novelizations of VII I've read so far has yet to have given the highway chase justice. I intend to remedy this. The next chapter will be partially inspired by the highway chase from The Matrix: Reloaded as well. Expect craziness and FULL ON ACKSHUN!

Sadly, I wasn't able to add a chapter of Gunblade at the same time, but me, being evil, I have actually completed the next chapter of Synthesis. But no, you won't get to read it, not until next week.

Also, you may or may not have noticed something small I have done during the course of this fic. Because the characters are composite characters, taking aspects of their FFVII counterparts to a degree, I tend to slip things intot heir character that help to emphasize who they replace. For example, Squall has glowing eyes like Cloud, Rinoa has Aeris' staff, and in this chapter, Zell has Barret's vest. I may do this for other characters further down the road.

Shout-outs!

Angel-brokensorrow: Indeed, Seifer is not going to play Sephiroth's role. Hm, but I wonder what role he does play? Hee. And Pimp Squall would be awesome to see in action. XD

Daniel Wesley Rydell: Seifer's role is a secret. But, thin of it this way: there's four other characters the heroes will encounter who will be "party" members. Some simple elimination and you may be able to figure out which one. but still, its gonna be a secret.


	10. The Fast and the Furious

_Chapter 9: The Fast and the Furious_

Bullets ripped through the air, and Zell threw himself behind the vacated receptionist's desk. The Shinra soldiers outside continued firing staggered bursts as they crouched behind the cover offered by dozens of armored vehicles. Beside him, Rinoa crouched behind the desk as well. Red XIII was somewhere else; Zell had no idea where.

"Shit!" Zell muttered, shaking his head. "Too many of them. No way in hell we're getting out the front door!"

"I'm sorry, Zell," Rinoa muttered, shaking her head. "I got you mixed up in this. You and Red should try to escape, I'll stay here. Its me they want."

"That's stupid talk!" Zell retorted. "No way in hell I'm leaving you behind! We're gonna find a way out of here!" Rinoa's eyes widened at Zell's proclamation.

"Zell . . . ." Rinoa said after a moment. "Thank you."  
  
"No need to thank me just yet," Zell muttered, peeking his head over the desk. A bullet ricocheted off it, cutting through the collar of his new military vest. The martial artist cursed and ducked behind the desk.  
  
"There is only a matter of time before they come in," called a voice behind Zell and Rinoa. They turned to see Red crouched behind one of the vehicles on display, a blue pickup truck. He gestured to the truck with his head. "We must escape while we still can. This vehicle is still fueled."  
  
"Squall and Quistis are still up there!" Zell stated, shaking his head. "We have to hold until-"  
  
"We're here!" came a shout from the upper levels, and Zell glanced up, to see Quistis running down the stairs from the second level of the empty lobby.  
  
"Where's Squall?" Rinoa asked, to which Quistis gestured over her shoulder to the upper levels.  
  
"He's hot-wiring a ride of his own," she stated. "He wants us to find something fast but can hold all of us and get up there."  
  
"Upstairs?" Zell echoed. "I know Squall's nuts, but still, that's insane!"  
  
"No time to argue!" Rinoa replied, pulling Zell up. She pushed him forward, toward the blue truck. "Get inside! Can you hotwire it?"  
  
"Easy," Zell replied. "But I don't think we'll make it to that truck without getting shot. They've got a perfect shot in here. We'll be picked off before we can reach it."  
  
"Not if they won't shoot," Rinoa replied, leaping over the desk to stand in the doorway. For an instant, Zell thought she'd be gunned down, but none of the Shinra soldiers opened fire.  
  
"Go, now!" she called, and Zell nodded, rising up and bolting toward the door. From her vantage point, Rinoa could see the soldiers outside twitch momentarily, over a hundred and more men's fingers moving toward their triggers, but they held their fire, Rinoa standing in their fields of fire and shielding Zell. None of the Shinra soldiers wanted to face Heidegger or Rufus' wrath if the accidentally killed the one target they were supposed to capture alive.  
  
Behind her, Zell ducked into the truck and pulled out a small utility knife. He popped the bottom of the dashboard off, revealing a tangle of wires. A couple of cuts and a pair of twists later, the truck rumbled to life. He leaned out and waved for the others to come on. Quistis bounded down the stairs, while Red leaped into the truck's bed and took cover. Zell glanced to Rinoa to see her turn back toward him, but at that moment, a pair of Shinra soldiers came into view, having hid just outside the doorway as a means to reconnoiter the lobby. She stepped back, drawing and extending her staff, intercepting one man's tonfa as it dove for her head. The other man thrust out with his weapon, jabbing her in the stomach. Rinoa doubled over in sudden pain, and the other soldier winded up for another hit with his club.  
  
Then, he was dead, a bolt of freezing ice striking down at him from where Quistis stood on the stairs and blasting the soldier away. The other man looked up momentarily, and then ducked behind Rinoa, using her as a shield. He grabbed her as she was recovering from the hit, spinning her around and throwing and arm around her neck. He began to pull away, dragging Rinoa outside the building, while other Shinra soldiers began edging forward from their cover, now that the Ancient was secured.  
  
Up on the second level, Quistis cursed, unable to use magic upon her opponent. She looked down at her comrades below, but saw that they were unable to help, none of them possessing a weapon precise enough to pick off the soldier as he retreated with his prize in tow.

--------------------  
  
"Oh, no you don't," he whispered, looking down on the battlefield below from one of the huge Mako pipes that were scattered around the Shinra Building. His current spot had, until several minutes ago, been occupied by a Shinra sniper, but the man was no longer in any position to cover the building, or even to be in a position to breathe. The figure had appropriated the dead man's rifle and now lay quietly, unnoticed, peering through the scope.  
  
He saw Rinoa being dragged away by the soldier, the man obviously too strong for her to break his grip as he pulled her to the Shinra lines. Those inside couldn't do anything, except possibly to charge out in a brave but suicidal effort to rescue her. Even worse, the Shinra troops were cautiously moving forward, preparing to end the siege. The situation had gone belly-up in the blink of an eye.  
  
Or rather, it would have been belly-up, except that he was in the perfect position to render a bit of 'aid'."  
  
He leveled the appropriated sniper rifle at the Shinra soldier. He had to still his breath before firing; it had been a while since he'd used a rifle. He zoomed in, settling his quivering sights over the man's head, and willed his body to remain motionless. The sight stilled momentarily, and he gently squeezed the trigger as it settled over the back of the soldier's head.  
  
That head exploded like a can of tomato soup, and he fell back, Rinoa scrambling forward. The Shinra soldiers moving forward shouted and surged forward, and a number of men around the barricade looked around in confusion as to where the shot came from. Long before they had discovered one of their snipers was no longer reporting in, however, the one who had intervened was long gone, melting into the Midgar night.  
  
--------------------  
  
Rinoa rushed forward into the safety of the building, a squad of fast-moving Shinra troopers hot on her tail. She rushed into the building, the soldiers only a few steps behind her, and turned to the right, leaping over the desk. The soldiers turned to follow, some moving to go around the desk, others scrambling over it, when a pair of them simply flew away.  
  
Then Zell Dincht, who had leaped out of his car the moment Rinoa had been grabbed, smashed into the back of the group of soldiers from his hiding spot beside the door, mimicking the soldiers who had been lurking outside moments before. Zell's fists, feet and forehead struck with brutally fast strikes, smashing one man's helmet in, shattering another's neck, and pulverizing a third's ribcage. He swept his opponents aside as if they were mere children, throwing them around the chamber to land in crumpled, mangled heaps. Ahead of the martial artist, Rinoa spun around, scooping up her staff and meeting the lead soldier head-on, deflecting his tonfa and jabbing the staff in the opening, right into the man's mouth. She laid him out flat, and twirled the weapon over to smash the next man's tonfa into the floor as he thrust forward with it. The opposing head of her staff smashed across into the soldier's helmet and threw him down.  
  
Most of the squad had been devastated by Zell's clever reversal of their own maneuver and subsequent sneak attack, but one man managed to fall back beyond the martial artist's rampage, and leveled his rifle at Zell as he twisted another soldier's arm around to the point where it was dislocated. He was about to fire when Red XIII leaped onto his back, bearing the soldier down under his surprising weight. Red's fangs tore into the back of the man's neck, and the fiery creature tasted blood as he shattered his opponent's vertebrae with a twist of his powerful neck muscles.  
  
The initial squad was dealt with, but Red and Zell were in the open and easy targets, a fact enunciated by the sudden sheets of bullets ripping through the air toward them. The two warriors were already moving, however, Zell flipping out of the way while Red simply seemed to vanish without whisper of sound, as if he had never been there in the first place.  
  
Behind them, the pickup truck started moving, Quistis now in the driver's seat. She accelerated, pulling forward, and Red seemed to leap from nowhere to the back of the truck, taking cover in the bed once again. Zell, in his hiding spot, watched the truck move forward, Quistis looking back through one of the mirrors at him. With a shrug to himself, the martial artist burst forward, running past the doors. The Shinra soldiers outside, now much closer as they advanced, opened fire in the middle of their run, but their poorly aimed shots never got near Zell, excepting another shot that tore through his open green vest but missed his skin. Quistis slowed the truck as she turned toward the stairs on the right side of the lobby, and Rinoa dashed in, opening the door and getting inside. Halfway to the moving truck Zell leaped, his enhanced muscles hurling him across the gap to land in the back of the truck as it started to accelerate up the stairs. Bullets pursued the vehicle as it rose, Shinra soldiers bursting into the lobby.  
  
Zell's teeth rattled in his mouth as the truck bounced up the stairs, bullets storming around them and throwing chunks of concrete and sparks from metal about like a raging blizzard. It was even cold, Zell noted as he threw himself to the floor of the truck bed. A moment later, he was confused by the thought of the cold, as the lobby of the building had actually been a bit warmer than normal.  
  
His question was answered in the form of shouts of fear and awe as the Shinra soldiers looked upon a beautiful, shapely figure exploding from within an icicle that had suddenly formed in the center of the lobby. The blue-skinned, hairless woman seemed to float in the air, a shimmering blue light forming in her hands as she gestured with them in the air.  
  
Then, a shockwave of pure cold ripped across the lobby, directly into the charging Shinra soldiers, freezing them where they stood and icing over the entrance, sealing the remainder of the charging force outside. The entity of ice vanished a moment later in a whisper of frigid cold, and the lobby returned to its normal temperature.  
  
"What the hell was that?" a confused Zell asked, looking around the lobby for the source of the icy entity. An instant later, the source came into view as the truck rolled up to the top of the steps, where Squall was waiting, his left bracer showing only a faint red glow, the after-effect of his usage of one of his Guardian Force materia. More importantly, Squall was straddling a powerful-looking military motorcycle, which he had stolen from its display along the wall. Squall revved up his stolen vehicle and drove it around the truck, near where a massive window displayed a highway running past the Shinra Building. Without a word, the ex-SeeD leveled a hand at the window, and ice erupted from his fingers, freezing the glass. A single swing of his gunblade shattered the icy glass, and then he drove the motorcycle back across the room. Quistis had already driven the truck to the far side of this level, and turned it around.  
  
"Squall, you're completely insane," Zell muttered from the back of the truck, looking at the window and the open stretch beyond it.  
  
"It's our only option," Squall replied with a shrug. Zell didn't reply with words, instead hunkering down in the bed of the truck and muttering a prayer. Squall revved his engine, as did Quistis with her vehicle, and the truck shot forward first, toward the open window. It accelerated rapidly and seemed to veritably leap from the window, flying out across the Midgar night, Squall's motorcycle a second behind. They flew past the shocked faces of hundreds of Shinra soldiers, and directly underneath the helicopter where Rufus was directing the whole operation. The young president watched in shock at the daring move, the quintet's vehicles somehow landing safely on the highway and speeding off. He snatched up a radio from one of the soldiers flying with him and contacted Heidegger.  
  
"Heidegger, dammit!" he called.  
  
"Sorry, sir!" the general replied immediately. "We just saw the escape, and we didn't expect them to be so . . . er, resourceful."  
  
"I'm saving blame for the next staff meeting," Rufus replied coldly. "For now, just capture them! Do not let Squall and his group escape, do you understand?"  
  
"Yes, Mr. President!" Heidegger replied. "I understand completely!"  
  
"Then get on it, now." Rufus handed the radio back to the soldier and tapped the pilot on the shoulder. "Hey! Get me down on the ground at Heidegger's command post, right now!"

"Yes, sir!" the pilot replied, sending the helicopter down toward the area behind the lines of trucks and tanks positioned outside the Shinra Building. Within moments, the pilot had maneuvered the helicopter into an open area near the command post where Heidegger was barking orders furiously to his men. Nearby, Reeve was talking into a headset with someone, while Scarlet simply stood to the side, overlooking the entire operation. She turned toward Rufus as he stepped off the helicopter, shielding her eyes from the whipping winds generated by the rotors.

"What's going on?" he asked her, rather than interrupt Heidegger or Reeve from their tasks. Scarlet had been observing the whole thing, and he knew that the woman was a very perceptive and analytical person, part of the reason why she had been promoted to her current position. The other part of her ascension, Rufus knew, came from the fact that she had bedded half the men in the company . . . at least.

"Heidegger is attempting to get units in pursuit," Scarlet stated easily, putting emphasis on the word 'attempt'. "Reeve is coordinating and attempting to get roads cleared for the units, though he's not going about it with the most eagerness."

"Trying to minimize damage to the city," Reeve commented, apparently having overheard the short briefing. "Unlike your father." Scarlet glanced back to Rufus, expecting him to be angry, but the young president actually smiled faintly.

"Mr. President!" Heidegger called, striding over as the last of his underlings scurried off to initiate the pursuit. "I've set the Shinra military into motion. We won't have much in the way of close air support, as Sephiroth did a number on our aircraft hangars in the main building. I've got some LRVs and as many motorcycle scout units as I can give orders to moving onto the highway in pursuit. Unfortunately, the majority of our other armored and robotic units aren't fast enough to get onto the highway in pursuit."

"What can?" Rufus asked, and Heidegger threw his head back and bellowed a laugh.

"I've already sent the orders to the one operational unit we have available," Heidegger explained, not directly answering the question. "The others are on standby near the Mako reactors, and we can't pull them off guard duty in time to reprogram them with new targets, so we've only got the one unit."

"Another Black Widow?" Rufus asked, and Heidegger laughed again. Somewhere in the distance, a familiar pounding of metal jackhammers sounded.

"Its heading off in pursuit," Heidegger reported. "Don't worry, sir. I've given it orders to use nonlethal force against the Ancient, and to try to take the others in a reasonable state of life. World'll be happy to see their executions, I'm betting."

"Indeed," Rufus replied with a nod. "Good job. Get whatever aerial units we have on hand and get them airborne in pursuit, right now. I also want all our mobile armor moved in pursuit."

"Sir?"

"Why, Mr. President?" Scarlet asked, as confused as Heidegger.

"Once you've sent those orders, I need you to work with Reeve and get maps of the highway system," Rufus added. "I want them herded back into the city, where our armor will be waiting for them."

"Great plan, Mr. President," Heidegger replied. "I'm on it!"

"An Scarlet," the young president added, turning toward her. She looked over to him, and he nodded toward Heidegger. "Keep an eye on this. Make sure he doesn't screw up."

Scarlet gave a dark smile and nodded, understanding her role as watchdog as Rufus turned away and strode back into his helicopter.

--------------------

Squall eased off on the accelerator, falling back behind the blue pickup. He glanced back into the vehicle, to see Rinoa and Quistis in the cab, both of whom gave him nods. He fell back a bit further and saw Red in the bed, standing tall, his short crimson fur flying in the whipping wind. Zell was nowhere to be seen at first, and Squall feared he had somehow been lost during the desperate jump. His fears were silenced an instant later as the martial artist poked his head over the rim of the bed, looking around with obvious relief on his face. He tuned to Squall and gave the ex-SeeD a slight grin and a shaky thumbs-up.  
  
"Don't relax," Squall shouted over the whipping winds as they accelerated down the highway. "Shinra's following!"  
  
A staccato of gunfire could be heard and a trio of bullets struck the rear of the truck, bouncing off the tailgate.  
  
"No shit," Zell replied, ducking for cover once more. Squall looked back to see a lance, totaling five men, of Shinra motorcycle scouts in hot pursuit, rapidly closing. Squall cursed; the slower speed of the truck meant that the bikes would have an easy time catching up. It looked like he would have to play interference. Reaching down to his gunblade, Squall knew that this wouldn't be easy. He would have to use his left hand, which wasn't his dominant hand, making things even more complicated. Magic wasn't an option; in this high-speed situation, it would be difficult to concentrate even for the instant he needed to conjure magical energies, and he only had one hand free at any given time anyway. No, he was going to have to play this with sheer speed and ferocity.  
  
The Shinra bikers were getting closer, and each of them was carrying a light machine pistol with an extended magazine, as well as heavy gauntlets on their forearms that Squall knew from experience concealed arm-mounted blades for drive-by attacks and grappling onto vehicles. Their motorcycles were sturdy and durable vehicles featuring heavy armor and powerful engines, and could take significant gunfire and other types of trauma and still remain running. By contrast, Squall's vehicle was lighter and actually faster and more agile, more of a crotch-rocket than a military model, which might just give him an advantage.  
  
Squall nodded toward Red and Zell, who poked his head out again, and released the accelerator for a single heartbeat. In an instant, Squall was slowed down dramatically, his left hand tearing his gunblade out as he seemed to stop in place. The motorcycle scouts flashed past him as well, excepting one, who took the gunblade in the chest as Squall slowed, the blade biting into his lungs and throwing him off the bike. Squall was then accelerating again, right behind the remainder of the Shinra motorcycle lance. He closed into their ranks as the scouts were still trying to figure out what had happened, the ex-SeeD coming alongside the scout in the rear and smashing across with his gunblade. The weapon sliced into the soldier's side, the weight of the blow throwing him from the motorcycle. The vehicle skittered across the pavement and smashed into one of the walls alongside the highway.  
  
One of the scouts looked back to see the sudden death of his comrade, and shouted something over his radio even as Squall accelerated and sideslipped toward the alert scout. The man extended his left arm-blade and sideslipped as well, toward Squall, stabbing out. Squall pulled aside briefly, the blade slashing into where he'd been an instant previously, and then slipped right back in, slashing across with his weapon into the enemy motorcycle's handlebars. There was a powerful blast from the gunblade, and the handlebars blew apart in the soldier's hands. The bike spun out of control, throwing the unfortunate soldier off to roll, bounce, and slide across the highway.  
  
The two scouts ahead slowed, dropping back to engage Squall, one leveling a machine pistol while the other closed with blade extended. The nearer soldier tried slashing across at Squall's face as he closed on the ex-SeeD's left, but Squall deftly ducked his skull beneath the slash and sideswiped into the soldier's bike, knocking it aside. The Revolver slashed up into the armor plating and the engine beneath, firing once more, blasting the motor apart. The motorcycle was also blasted sideways by the shot, dropping on its side and spilling the rider off.  
  
Squall accelerated even as he was hitting his foe, closing with the pistol-wielding soldier swiftly. The man had already leveled his weapon and opened fire, however, prompting Squall to go into an emergency sideswipe away from the scout's line of fire. Bullets tore past him as he skittered across the highway, and Squall pushed his motorcycle to full speed, accelerating past the Shinra soldier. The man held the trigger on his weapon, sweeping it after Squall as he pulled up even with him, then ahead. Then, suddenly, Squall sideswiped across the highway back across to the scout's front, and released his accelerator again. The scout dodged aside immediately as Squall closed very quickly, managing to get out of reach of Squall's gunblade if he attempted to repeat his initial maneuver. However, rather than slice across with his gunblade as he had before, Squall instead kept his weapon by his side, instead accelerating even before he had dropped behind the soldier. He immediately matched the man's speed and swerved across into the Shinra scout, gunblade slashing up into the rear wheel of the motorcycle and blasting part of it away, and cleanly severing the rest. The bike and rider seemed to simply fly apart as the vehicle instantly went out of control, spilling parts and soldier along the pavement.

Squall watched the man and his vehicle fall apart, and then glanced back behind him, to see more bikers closing in the distance. He muttered something under his breath and accelerated, trying to catch up with his comrades ahead as they sped down the highway.

It was then that he saw his friends were already engaged.

--------------------

"Yeah, kick some ass!" Zell cheered as Squall began to cleave through the motorcycle scouts. He should have kept his eyes on the road and their surroundings, however, as his first warning that pursuit was coming from other directions was when another bullet grazed along his neck as a pair of motorcycle troops pulled out of an onramp onto the highway very close by, followed by the remainder of their lance, plus another lance and a pair of LRVs. More Shinra vehicles were behind, and scattered through the city, Zell could see the headlights of more units inbound.

"This doesn't look good," Red stated, watching the oncoming enemy. Beside him, Zell nodded.

"Wish I still had some grenades," the martial artist muttered as the motorcycles closed in.

He looked past to the LRVs, and noted one that featured a mounted machinegun on the back, manned by a Shinra soldier. "Actually, I wish I had that too," he added.

"No time for that," Red replied, his tail twitching anxiously as the motorcycles closed in.

The scouts began to raise their pistols, but then paused and lowered them, instead extending their arm blades and edging closer, near enough that Zell could see his reflection in the visors of their helmets. One of the scouts pointed at them and made a slashing gesture, apparently a signal for them to surrender. Zell scowled and gave a one-fingered response.  
  
The soldiers must not have taken that well, as they suddenly accelerated and closed in. One got very close to the truck, close enough to touch it, and he did so, jabbing his left arm claw down toward the truck's right tire. Zell, realizing what the target was, bolted forward a pair of steps and shot a leg out at the scout's head. The foot connected and smashed his helmet in, throwing the adventurous soldier off his motorcycle before his blade could cut the tire.

The other leading soldier swung around the truck, coming at the other side with a raised machine pistol, trying to gun Zell down as he rose from cover. That scout suddenly found a red blur that bolted from the truck and landed on the front of his motorcycle, before kicking off with incredible force, throwing the bike aside and spilling the soldier across the highway at lethal speeds. Red XII managed to land back in the bed of the speeding truck as another scout drove up with a readied blade, accelerating toward the front tires as opposed to the rear one. He neared that tire, and then his arm rose to his neck, where a quivering crossbow bolt had lodged itself in his throat. The man fell off his bike, which bounced along the highway. Rinoa leaned out of her window, readying another bolt as the two surviving scouts accelerated toward the truck.

A burst of bullets struck near her head as one of the scouts fired a precise burst of covering fire. Rinoa ducked back into the truck as the other biker closed, keeping a safe distance away in order to avoid any retaliation by Zell or Red. That men readied his own pistol to shoot out the tires.

The pickup suddenly seemed to leap across the highway like a pouncing predator, sideslipping directly at the Shinra scout. The man's eyes widened under his visor and he began to pull away when the truck slammed into him and threw both the soldier and his bike across the road.

Quistis decelerated the truck, and then it fell back toward the fifth soldier, who barely swerved out of its way. However, he passed closely enough for Red to reach out with both his claws and tear the man from his bike, throwing him down onto the highway to roll along the pavement. His body bounced among the advancing motorcycles of the next lance and was smashed under the tires of one of the reconnaissance vehicles. The lance began to move up, but then broke apart, three of the riders falling back, one moving forward, and one falling from his bike as Squall hit the back of the formation, his gunblade chopping a piece of the soldier loose. Both of the armored jeeps accelerated toward the pickup as the three scouts engaged Squall.

The Shinra scout biker swung out wide, getting far to the left of the truck and readying his pistol. By comparison, the two jeeps got much closer, on the opposite side of the truck. Zell was nearly thrown of his feet as the driver of the unarmed jeep sideswiped their pickup, pushing it across the road. Quistis countered by quickly breaking away and moving further across the road, straight at the scout. The motorcycle scout had leveled his weapon when he suddenly realized Quistis was moving directly at him, and he began to brake. It was too late, however, and the pickup smashed into him as well. The soldier was hurled from his bike, but managed to squeeze off a burst just before impact, the bullets stitching the side of the truck and puncturing the front left tire.

The ex-SeeD had to deflect two stabs with a pair of arm blades, smacking and waving his gunblade around defensively as the three scouts attacked in unison. Under normal circumstances, most men would have fallen back, but Squall accelerated, surprising the Shinra soldiers. The ex-SeeD thrust out with his gunblade as his bike touched that of one of the scouts, and the blade dove into the man's kidney. Squall then cut his speed before the other two men could counter. He fell back and swerved around the side, accelerating anew around the remaining pair as their wounded comrade crashed to the pavement, sparks flying madly from his bike. Squall swerved to the left, slipping around beside one of the scouts, who dove toward him. The other moved away, drawing his pistol.

Quistis' maneuver had eliminated the threat on their flank, but she knew immediately from the way the vehicle shuddered and list slightly to the front and left that one of the tires was gone. There was no way they'd be able to escape under these circumstances; they had to either fix the damages or obtain a new vehicle, though both of those avenues would be near impossible in this situation. Especially with the unarmed LRV repeatedly slamming into the side of her truck.

She tried to counter, pushing against the jeep, but the military vehicle was too powerful for her small truck. Rinoa tried to assist, firing a bolt from her crossbow into the cab of the jeep. However, the arrow simply dug into the bulletproof glass of the window and stuck there. The driver, undeterred, pulled away and slammed them again. Meanwhile, the armed LRV began to advance ahead, trying to box them in while the unarmed jeep would smash them against the wall of the highway. Eventually, they would be stopped, at least long enough for the remainder of the Shinra army to catch up. The armed vehicle managed to get ahead, one man on the back and aiming the machinegun, but holding his fire. Just beyond the jeep was an exit from the highway, a possible road to salvation.

"Not today!" came a shout from outside, and Quistis looked back to see Zell and Red leap onto the bed of the unarmed LRV as it came in for another sideswiping attack. The landed easily, and the sudden invasion caused the driver to look back in shock and pull away. Zell shot forward, wrapping his arms around the driver's neck, choking the man, while Red put his claws and fangs to deadly work on the passenger. Quistis, taking the opening, decelerated as she neared the exit and pulled off. Rinoa looked back outside, just in time to see the armed jeep open fire with its machinegun at the invaded vehicle.

A instant later, the LRV exploded in a brilliant fireball as the armor-piercing rounds of the machinegun penetrated the gas tank and blew the vehicle apart, with both Zell and Red still on board.

Quistis' jaw opened and she looked back in horror as the husk of the destroyed vehicle rolled down the highway past the exit. An instant later, another jeep, also unarmed, rolled down the exit in pursuit. Quistis stared at the jeep and suddenly steeled her jaw.

"Quistis, stop!" Rinoa shouted, and Quistis immediately hit the brakes in response. She looked ahead and suddenly understood, as the exit had not been completed, the road hanging a good fifty feet above the plate.

"Rinoa, get out," Quistis quickly said, her tone urgent but otherwise emotionless as she opened the door. Rinoa hesitated, then nodded as Quistis stepped out of the truck, turning to face the oncoming jeep with an uncoiling whip. She held the whip ready, stepping away from the truck and into the middle of the highway. Behind her, Rinoa quickly stepped out of the truck as well and moved to the side, realizing the danger of Quistis' daring plan.

"You bastards killed Zell," she muttered, clutching her whip by its handle and head. She narrowed her eyes, and her legs tensed. the jeep, its driver apparently recognizing Quistis as one of the terrorists they could kill, accelerated even faster, intending to run her down. She waited, watching the vehicle approach, her blue eyes promising a death which made the driver falter slightly as he came in.

Then, when the vehicle was perhaps a full second from impacting Quistis and crushing her, she snapped the whip out wide and spun to the right, out of the jeep's path with surprising swiftness. As she came around, safely out of the jeep's path, the whip snapped up and into the front left tire, slicing through it and up, through the armor plating and out the side of the driver's door. The LRV spun on the damaged tire, flipping over as the driver hit the brakes, and Quistis spun, her wrist flaring.

"Now I'll kill you!" she shouted as she discharged the fire spell, the magic blasting out and into the jeep's underside, igniting the gas tank. The LRV went up in a sudden fireball that lit up the night sky of Midgar.

--------------------

Squall was still engaged with his opponent, having deflected one slash and dodged another. The scout came in again, stabbing in at his right side, one which was difficult for the ex-SeeD to defend considering the dubious situation. Squall pulled just out of reach, and then crossed his left arm over his chest, pointing his gunblade directly at the Shinra biker and sideslipped directly at the man. The scout swerved away from the attack to avoid getting impaled, and Squall pursued, chasing him across the highway. The biker suddenly stopped as he realized he was close to crashing into his comrade, who began to accelerate to get ahead of his fellow soldier and fire upon Squall.

Squall, however, continued moving across the highway as his target stopped, and the Shinra scout's chest exploded in pain as the gunblade dug in. Squall then pulled the trigger on his weapon before the scout's comrade could pull too far ahead. The wounded man's body was blasted almost in half, gore exploding from the far side of his body and splattering the accelerating soldier. The man's visor was covered with dark red blood and bits of blasted, smoking organs, and he did not see his doom coming until Squall closed and the Revolver bit into the scout's chest. He tumbled off his bike and bounced to a high-speed death along the highway.

--------------------

Quistis glared at the ruined, burning husk of the destroyed jeep as it rolled onto the truck, setting their vehicle ablaze as well. Rinoa stepped around the inferno, using her arm to shield her eyes from the intense light of the blaze.

She watched the twisting flames for a long moment before hanging her head, slowly shaking it as the fires consumed the transport. She had enacted vengeance, but how useless it seemed, especially now that Zell was clearly lost to her.  
  
"Quistis?" Rinoa asked, approaching her comrade and putting a hand on her shoulder. Quistis glanced up at Rinoa, and then back to the inferno.  
  
"He's gone," she muttered, shaking her head again. "Zell and Red are both dead-"  
  
Quistis' words were cut off as the rumbling approach of yet another Shinra recon vehicle sounded behind them, coming from the direction of the onramp. Both she and Rinoa spun, readying their weapons as the vehicle closed. An instant later, they stood down, their weapons lowering as they saw the driver of the vehicle.  
  
It was Zell!  
  
"Sorry for the scare!" he called as his stolen vehicle rolled up, Red crouched in the back.  
  
"Zell!" Quistis exclaimed, echoed by Rinoa a split second later. "We thought . . . ."  
  
"Yeah, I did too," Zell replied with a shrug as he opened the door of the vehicle and stepped out. "When that gun back there was pointed at us, I thought we were toast. But Red had the bright idea to take a little leap of faith, just like with the elevator. Landed right on the back of this Shinra piece of junk and took over before they could figure out how we got on board." Zell glanced at the burning remains of their vehicle, and frowned.  
  
"Looks like I managed to get a new ride for us," he added.  
  
"A superior mode of transport," Red commented as he hopped off the back of the LRV. "Faster, and armed as well. But we cannot wait any longer; Shinra is closing in." To accentuate this statement, a motorcycle entered the onramp, Squall straddled along the back of the vehicle. He quickly approached, pulling his bike to a stop as he neared.  
  
"Shinra is closing in," he reported. "Not much time left. I spotted a helicopter and a large force behind us. We have to get moving, now."  
  
"No sweat, Squall," Zell replied, leaping into the back of the stolen vehicle. He stood behind the machinegun, hands resting on the triggers. "Let's see Shinra mess with us now!" The others nodded, clambering into their new vehicle, Rinoa and Quistis entering the cab while Red hopped into the back along with Zell.  
  
"You know how to shoot that thing?' Squall asked dubiously, to which Zell shrugged.  
  
"Can't be that difficult," he replied as Quistis began to back the LRV up and turn it around. "If Shinra goons can use it, I can-"  
  
Zell's speech was cut off as a sudden sound assaulted his, and everyone else's, ears. To Rinoa, Quistis, and Red XIII, the sound was new, but to Zell, and especially Squall, who had been escaping the Number One Reactor days previously, the sound was all too familiar.  
  
The thunderous report of metal jackhammers could be heard far below, in the streets of the Midgar plate some fifty or so feet beneath them, and suddenly the sounds stopped. An instant later, however, from beyond the raging inferno of the burning vehicles, the sound was heard once more, now frightfully louder as the highway shook with a slight tremor. Then, the jackhammers started anew, much closer, and growing louder with each step.  
  
"DRIVE!" Zell screamed, and Quistis turned the LRV around and began accelerating back toward the main highway. Squall was right behind them, following in his self-appointed covering position. As they approached the onramp and began to pull back onto the highway, Squall glanced behind, and saw a massive, armored spidery shape burst through the fires, the flames licking at its black shape as it thundered through the wreckage and raised its bloody red sensor in their general direction.  
  
X-ATM095, brother to the destroyed X-ATM092 unit, crouched low to the ground, readying its pistons, and then leaped in a mighty pounce that carried it through the air to land with a tremendous crunch on the highway behind the escaping quintet of Shinra fugitives. It turned as Squall and Quistis pulled away in their vehicles and gave chase, clawed limbs pounding into the ground as Shinra motorcycles and jeeps swerved around it.  
  
"Suck on these, tin can!" Zell screamed, pulling the triggers on the machinegun. The weapon suddenly rattled, the barrel bouncing around as it spewed armor-piercing bullets wildly around the highway. Zell gritted his teeth and tried to regain control of the weapon, but was unable to fully master the machinegun. He was a martial artist, and not trained or experienced in firearms, and his lack of skill showed as his shots went wide, throwing up chunks of asphalt and ceramics and generally missing whatever he aimed at.

"I thought you said you could handle that thing!" he shouted at Zell. The brawler must not have heard him over the pounding of the machinegun. The good news, however, was that Zell's haphazard firing was keeping the enemy at bay, and after one of the Shinra scouts suddenly dropped from a lucky pair of bullets that sliced through his chest, the rest started to shy back behind their monstrous mechanical ally.  
  
That didn't make things any easier for the group, however, as they saw the huge, spider-like war machine closing in, its massive legs chipping away at the highway as it rushed forward. It steadily advanced as the pursuing Shinra forces fell back, and within the jeep, Quistis and Rinoa overheard shouts on the radio to fall back and "let the Black Widow deal with them." It didn't sound particularly promising to either of them.  
  
Squall looked back to the pursuing weapon as it closed to within three car lengths of the fugitives, bullets pinging off its armor as Zell screamed and waved the machinegun around desperately.  
  
"Concentrate your fire!" Squall tried shouting, but once again, Zell didn't hear, instead whipping the weapon around and scattering bullets across the war machine's exterior. He wasn't doing any serious damage, or at least nothing the dozens and dozens of tiny, insectile repair robots couldn't fix. Squall's fingers tightened once more around his gunblade, and he knew that it was up to him to slow this beast down.  
  
Squall cut the accelerator for a hair of a second, and dropped back to a point beside the spider machine's front right leg. He raised his gunblade, and ducked once as one of Zell's bullets got too close, then twitched the bike a few feet closer before lashing out with his weapon. The Revolver cut into the piston-like appendage as it rose, and a blast from the weapon's concussive shells blew apart gears and metal within the leg. The spider machine stumbled forward, and Squall had to sideslip to the right and accelerate to avoid eating the weapon as is fell forward and to the left, directly at him. He managed to squeeze past it and catch up with the jeep as the war machine fell on its side, momentarily stopped. Beside Squall, Zell's fingers eased off the triggers slightly, and the gunfire faded.  
  
"Wow!" he shouted over the roar of the engines. "That was insane, Squall!"  
  
"Its part of my job," he replied, and then the highway behind him exploded in a nova of yellow light.  
  
--------------------  
  
X-ATM095 rose from its position, leg already restored within a matter of seconds, and charged up its ray bomb weapon a second time as it pounded off in pursuit. Behind it, the Shinra forces slowed to a stop, blocked by the gaping hole in the highway that their robotic ally had blasted. Undeterred by its destruction, X-ATM095 leaped clear over the breach and swept after the fugitives. The Shinra troops considered moving off to find another way to the highway, when Heidegger cut in over their radios.  
  
"All units move to secure the exits from that highway!" he shouted. "That thing dead-ends a mile down the road, and no one's getting off that street, even if the Black Widow doesn't bring them down. The president is en route with air support. Do not let them escape!"  
  
The Shinra troopers replied with confirmations of those orders and immediately moved out, eager to please Rufus Shinra.  
  
--------------------  
  
"Bastard is still on our tail!" Zell shouted, pulling the triggers on his weapon once more. Bullets streamed out toward the pursuing weapon but did nothing to slow X-ATM095's dogged pursuit. Squall steeled himself for another delaying action when a shining yellow bolt ripped past him and just ahead of the jeep, smashing into the highway and blasting it apart. Both Squall's motorcycle and the jeep were caught in the blast and hurled up into the air, flying forward past the breach to crash heavily into the pavement. Squall, Red, and Zell were thrown clear as their vehicles hit, only their superhuman toughness and ki focusing saving the humans, while Red managed to land roughly, rolling along and using his animalistic agility to bounce with the impacts and take minimal damage. The jeep flipped over once, then twice, then smashed heavily into the pavement and rolled onto its tires. Within, Rinoa looked dazed from the crash.  
  
Quistis was nowhere to be seen.  
  
Squall rose shakily, his left side burning from the impact. He wiped an arm across his face, and his leather sleeve came away torn and bloody. His right arm reached for his gunblade, only to find the weapon was not on hand, instead having been flung across the highway. He turned to run toward it when a tremendous impact almost threw him from his feet, and the metal jackhammers warned the ex-SeeD of the war machine's arrival.  
  
Squall looked back over his shoulder, and saw the bloody-red sensor behind the machine's grating glowing at him ominously at a mere thirty feet away, far too close for comfort. It started forward at Squall, and he turned and scrambled for his gunblade. Armed, he might be able to fend off the machine, but as he was, survival would be impossible. Squall didn't know how Zell was, or if Red was in a position to help, and Rinoa didn't seem to be able to render any aid at the moment. He was alone in this desperate fight.  
  
The gunblade was perhaps twenty feet away as he dashed across the highway, but it might as well have been in far-off Wutai. The war machine was closing in too quickly, its pinchers rising to smash him down into the pavement and finish the ex-SeeD off. Having no choice, and giving in to desperation, Squall leaped, diving for the weapon. Even as his feet left the pavement, Squall knew it was a futile gesture as the pinchers rose for their killing blow.  
  
Then, the weapon was stalled in mid-strike as a sheet of armor-piercing bullets tore into it, precision firing ripping into the armor plating and shredding internal components. Squall hit the pavement in a roll, scooping up his gunblade and whipping around to face the robot as it was pushed back from the sheer volume of deadly metal cutting and tearing into its body.  
  
Squall spun toward the LRV, expecting to see Zell in his gunnery position, but instead saw Quistis a ferocious resolve stamped upon her features as she ruthlessly pumped bullets into the spider robot. Blood poured down the side of her head as she held the triggers down. Hundreds of holes now dotted the machine's outer body, the metal slugs tearing apart electronics and ripping through power cores. The AI computers began issuing repair orders even as the weapon made its final lunge, but then they fell silent, and the weapon stopped thinking, as Quistis's bullets tore apart the computers. The weapon's interior quickly came to resemble shredded cheese as more bullets stuck it, and continued to hit it even as it fell down. Smoke issued forth from the dying machine's shredded corpse, and fires erupted within.  
  
The war machine, one of Shinra's mighty weapons of destruction, toppled to the pavement, wreathed in an inferno that blossomed into a massive fireball a moment later, components and slagged metal hurled into the night sky.  
  
As the fireball settled down, Squall limped over to where Quistis stood at the gunner's position, and nodded his thanks to her. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and returned the nod. Moments later, Zell hobbled up to them, as did Red. Squall checked Rinoa, to see that, aside from a minor cut along her face, that she had made it through the crash just fine.  
  
"Thank Hyne we're all in one piece," she commented, looking over the battered but otherwise intact group. Squall quickly handed around a series of restorative potions, which helped bind the wounds and dull the pain, before turning and taking stock of their situation. He saw the end of the highway ahead, and the construction equipment intended to lengthen the route. He quickly dashed over to the edge and peered down, before nodding.  
  
"Shinra will be here soon," he called as the others followed him. "We can use this crane to go down to the surface, and from there its easy walking out of Midgar's slums and to safety."  
  
"And then?" Zell asked, to which squall gestured out into the distant night, and the rolling plains far away. Halfway to the horizon, the barren ground gave way to grasses, and beyond those, on the horizon, were lush, green fields that remained untainted. And beyond them was the outside world, a place promising refuge from Shinra.  
  
"Sephiroth is out there," Squall replied grimly. "I know it. I have to find him and put a stop to whatever it is he's planning to do."  
  
"He's more important than dealing with Shinra?" Zell asked, and Squall nodded.  
  
"Shinra can't touch how dangerous he is. You saw what he did back there in the headquarters," Squall stated. "I know he's got something terrible planned for the future, and we have to stop him."  
  
"I'm with ya on that," Zell replied, clapping Squall on the shoulder. He turned to the women and Red. "What about you guys?"  
  
"There's more out there," Rinoa stated after a moment. "Beyond Midgar . . . I can find what I really need. Answers."  
  
"To what questions?" Squall asked. Rinoa didn't immediately reply, instead looking to the horizon.  
  
"Many things," she replied. "The Ancients, the Promised Land, the planet . . . and myself. I can only find those beyond Midgar . . . and only with all of you."  
  
"I guess its goodbye to Midgar," Quistis added. "I thought we'd be here longer, but If this is where our road takes us . . . ." She looked to her comrades, and smiled faintly. "I'll walk it with my friends." She looked pointedly to Squall. "All of them."  
  
"I will travel with you to my homeland," Red added quietly. "At least that far. I will render what aid along your road as I may. It is the least I can do to repay the debt I owe for your assistance."  
  
"Then its settled," Squall stated, turning away from Midgar's grimy skies and to the cleaner lands beyond. He stepped toward one of the crane wires running down to the surface.  
  
"Never did like it here," Zell added, and unlike Squall he looked back, while the others moved to the crane as well. "Biggest city on the planet. Don't think I heard of anyone naming it twice, and sure as hell that nobody left their heart here, but there's one thing you can say about this place." He glanced back to his friends as they descended and stepped forward to join them.  
  
"This is one hell of a town."

--------------------

It was perhaps a few hours later. Rufus Shinra sat back behind the desk his father had once occupied, his face aglow from the dozens of monitors feeding him data. He sat silently, replaying the entire escape incident and nodding at each point. He reviewed the data that had been captured from the assault by Sephiroth and memorized everything. He watched his media team handle the spin on the escape, labeling the escaping members of AVALANCHE as terrorists, and glanced over the plans for the memorial for his father and his subsequent inauguration ceremony in Junon. No detail escaped his watching eyes as he observed everything. While he was certainly not omniscient, he seemed to be, looking in on every corner of his new empire.  
  
"Sir," came a quiet call, and Rufus glanced up momentarily, seeing a humbled Heidegger standing before him.  
  
"I regret to inform you that we have lost track of them," he stated quietly, quivering faintly in fear. Rufus speared the heavyset man with his cold blue eyes, and then turned his gaze back down to the monitors around him.  
  
"Last location?" Rufus asked a she called up a chart of Mako price fluctuations in the west.  
  
"Southern end of Midgar, on the highway," Heidegger replied. "But where they are now is uncertain. We found some construction equipment that the may have used to get to the surface. We're combing the slums now."  
  
"They probably know that," Rufus replied, analyzing the graph. "Its no longer safe for them in Midgar, and they know it. I want you to dispatch search parties into the regions around Midgar, especially the northeast. There are a lot of smaller towns in that region, places where they can hide, but only temporarily."  
  
"Yes sir," Heidegger replied immediately. "I'm also putting our garrisons outside Midgar on alert. Should I recall the contingent preparing for the next assault on Condor?"  
  
"No," Rufus replied, closing the graph and typing up a quick note to the director of the Corel Mako Reactor. "I want you to reinforce it. Extra troops. Take the fort."  
  
"But I thought we were simply laying siege to it," Heidegger replied. "Starving them out."  
  
"That will work, but it will take too long," Rufus replied, finishing the note and mailing it. "Condor has been a thorn in our side for too long. Crush them before Squall and his people get there. Have there been any updates on that sniper?"  
  
"No sir, we never found him," he replied. "But two of our MPs patrolling Sector Four were found dead and their vehicle stolen. He may have fled the city." Rufus mulled over that for a moment, before nodding. He glanced at a request for more funding for the air force base in Junon and approved it.  
  
"Find out what you can," he ordered. "Also, I'm restarting the SeeD Officer Candidacy Program. My father shut it down by your own request a few years ago, but the need for senior level officers with competency is more critical now than ever before." Rufus looked up pointedly at Heidegger, whose face had gone slightly pale. The young president knew precisely why Heidegger had requested that the SOC program be shut down; he had feared a more competent SeeD officer would come along and supplant him, a general who had risen from the regular Shinra army. While there were plenty of merits to such a useful program, one advantage that was not so apparent was that it would certainly motivate Heidegger to do his best.  
  
"Shinra has no place for incompetence," Rufus added, looking back down to a report of protests by the lower populace of Junon. He sent an order to squelch the demonstrations with maximum force required. "That may have occurred under my father, but not under me. I'm increasing the budget for both military training and the SeeD program. Put them to good use."  
  
"Yes sir!" Heidegger replied, his crispness motivated partially by newfound fear of his replacement.  
  
"And find Squall and his people," Rufus added. "Now."  
  
"What about Sephiroth?" Heidegger asked, and Rufus glanced back up.  
  
"Dispatch the Turks," Rufus said after a moment. "I want them to find him. Once we've pinpointed his location, I want the entire Shinra military to crush him like the bug he really is." Heidegger saluted and turned away, striding off, glad to be done with his meeting. Rufus glanced back up at his departure, and shook his head.  
  
"These are gnats," he muttered to himself. "And this company is a bumbling giant that has let them sting it for too long. AVALANCHE's threat is minor, except the damage they have inflicted to our pride and image. Even Sephiroth is nothing but an inconvenience. A large and dangerous one, but an inconvenience nonetheless. They have survived because were we slow and complacent."  
  
Rufus smirked darkly, a mirthless smile.  
  
"Its time for all of them to realize that this giant is awake," he added. "And once it is awakened, this giant is much, much more dangerous."

--------------------

"So, where to?" Rinoa asked as they trudged across the barren wastelands beyond Midgar. The ground was a dull gray, not even the brown that would indicate it could possibly support life. It was as if the land itself was dead.

"There's a large town about seven miles away," Squall replied. "Named Kalm. We're heading there now."

"I'm glad to see Squall takes the leadership position so well," Quistis remarked, to which Squall shrugged. Zell had been quick to relinquish the leadership role to Squall, and no one else had really argued. He hadn't exactly accepted the job very readily, but he was the best qualified for it.

"I'm not the leader," Squall replied after a moment. "I just know where I'm going." He paused and looked back to the others.

"Its going to be dangerous out here," he stated, and the others quickly nodded. "Shinra will be after us, and the person we're hunting is no less dangerous. We'll have to be quick and smart about this. Rufus is not the complacent and slow man his father was." He looked over each of his comrades.

"We're not soldiers," he added. "I was trained extensively in small-unit tactics and guerilla warfare. That's why I've always led up until now, but out here things are different. We're fighting Shinra on the strategic level now, not the tactical. There's no real hierarchy here. I'm not in command, I just know what I'm doing."

"Seeing as how we're just a group of civilians, I gotcha," Zell added. "Big advantage of small groups like us is we can think independently. You want us to put our heads together, right?"

"That would be best," Squall replied with a nod. "We're in this together. We have to fight together and rely on each other."

"You suggest that we should be like the sahaguin," Red stated, drawing curious stares. He elaborated. "The sahaguin are a predator that lives in my homeland. They are man-like beasts, but possess no intelligence like we do. They have a linked mind, and work together as one entity to fight their foes. While we lack their communal mind, the principle is the same. Together we are one enemy that is more powerful than five separate warriors."

"That's sort of what I'm aiming at," Squall said with an understanding nod. "We've survived this long because we stand and fight together. We're going to have to act on our own initiative and fight as one."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say Squall is trying to dodge being in charge," Quistis added with a smile. Squall didn't reply, instead turning away, refusing to admit that Quistis had hit pretty close to the mark.

"So, when are you gonna tell us what this thing is with Sephiroth?" Zell demanded.

"In Kalm," Squall replied, his thoughts suddenly flicking back to the past. "I'll tell you there."

--------------------

"Yeah, I'm safe now," he stated over the radio as he ran across the dry, barren lands. "Shinra pursuit hasn't begun yet. I'm shadowing them right now.

"No, I haven't made contact yet. Was going to wait until they were outside the Midgar area. I was thinking of getting them at least to Junon and making contact there."

He paused and listened, turning his gaze to the north and the distant quintet of escapees. He nodded after a moment, pressing the earpiece tighter into his ear.

"I understand. Shinra would not be happy if they found out. I'll have to keep quiet about it so they don't know. The less they know the better."

"I understand," he added after the man on the other end finished. "I'll keep in touch."

He stopped a moment later, looking back over his shoulder. from the top of the ridge he was positioned on, he spotted the very distant shapes of Shinra soldiers and vehicles beginning a search to the south of Midgar, doubtless hoping to catch the fugitives. Grinning, he pulled out a radio detonator. The mines he had left to the west were right underneath the clomping feet of the searching Shinra forces checking in that direction. With a silent salute to the unfortunate soldiers, he detonated the trigger. A very, very faint tremor ran through the ground as the distant mines detonated, reducing two unfortunate platoons to vapor. The remainder of the large force combing that area practically jumped out of their boots and scrambled to the location, vehicles blasting over the dirt as they converged on the explosion.

"I think I just redirected the pursuit," he muttered with a smile.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whee, that was much fun. I enjoyed that. Car chases are awesome.

What to comment on in this chapter? Hmm, not much. Obviously, I want to make the Shinra thugs and higher-ups have more personality to them, so expect to see them plotting and planning in the future. Also, Quistis' jeep-killing scene was taken from The Matrix Reloaded, and obviously, the part where she kills X-ATM095 is the scene from FFVIII where she did the same from the boat.

Shout-out time!

Daniel Wesley Rydell: Good guesses. Laguna was one of my original ideas for replacing Cid, but I came up with a much, much better one. Your other guesses are good but not on the money. Selphie as Yuffie was another idea I had, and same with Seifer and Zack, so I can see your logic.

And yes, Seifer will be appearing within the next few fics. Though, obviously, we've already seen him a bit before. Writing Sephiroth's massacre was a great load of fun. I watched some hellsing before I did that to help get the feel of the killing and violence in that sequence. I don't mind spell-checking, actually.

Also, I try to get in updates once a week, but if i miss a week, its usually because I'm pretty busy. I tend to save additional chapters I've finished for the next week so I can have something to fall back on if the next week is either really busy or unproductive. I would have uploaded another Gunblade chapter but some inspiration for a Resident Evil fic has been striking me lately so I did a bit of work on that instead. Resident Evil 4 cannot get here fast enough. . 

Angel-brokensorrow: Yeah, I like doing bloody battles, but I only went hardcore with the blood and gore this chapter because it fits Sephiroth and the massacre. Synthesis is going to be bloodier than Gunblade, mostly because of the darkness of the storyline.

Yeah, I noticed that I don't write her doing much, but then again, for a large part of the story she is mostly baggage to a degree. She and Quistis don't get too much combat, as they don't have the combat potential of Squall or Zell or Red XIII, mostly because they lack the superhuman abilities of any of them. At least, for now. Rinoa's abilities will grow later, and Quistis will become more powerful too outside of Midgar.

Xenogears: YOU! Have you gotten my emails? I've had no responses from you. Did you change addresses or what? My AOL account is defunct now, but my Hotmail acocunt is working.

Akira Stridder: Thanks. I enjoyed writing this whole thing, and I'm nowhere near finished yet!


	11. Bloody Blade, Crimson Memories

_Chapter 10: Bloody Blade, Crimson Memories_  
  
Kalm was something different from the slums of Midgar. The town was large, clean, and healthy, something that the dilapidated towns beneath Midgar had never exhibited. The people there were hardworking, honest folk, unlike Midgar's slum populace, who often seemed to be creeping in the shadows, hiding in fear if they weren't trying to kill and steal their way to survival. The town itself reflected this different attitude, displaying a simple innocence in its structure and cleanliness. The people themselves were simple, or as simple as they got in that day and age. With the exception of the small Mako reactor in the center of town – barely taller than the houses surrounding it – there was no trace of Shinra presence. For Zell, Quistis, and Rinoa, it was a breath of fresh air after the pollution of Midgar. But for Squall, who had grown up in the squalor and corruption of that metropolis, it was a bit alien. For Red, who had never liked bipedal creatures much anyway, it meant nothing to him.  
  
They picked out an inn near the city entrance that looked nondescript enough, a place that tended to cater to travelers going to and from the big metropolis beyond the horizon. Squall paid up front, the rooms not being overly expensive, and Zell plopped down a bit of extra cash so the owner of the small inn would ignore Red's presence with the group, before they went upstairs.  
  
The room they had rented featured a quartet of beds, as Red would not be needing one, after all. Rinoa immediately flopped down on the nearest bed, virtually sighing with relief that the trek was over. Quistis and Zell sat down on a couple of other beds as well, equally relieved to be able to rest. Red lay down near the window, basking in the sunlight filtering through, and squall leaned against one of the walls, considering the story he was going to have to tell concerning Sephiroth.

"So, let's hear it," Zell asked after a moment, propping his head up on an arm that itself was balanced on his knee. "What's so important about getting out of Midgar and after this Sephiroth guy that you had us pulling away from giving Rufus the beating of the century?"

Squall considered the question, and looked around to his comrades. Zell was obviously interested, and Quistis even moreso, judging by her expression and what little she knew about his past that had changed him. Rinoa perked up, also intrigued, propping herself up on her elbows and raising an eyebrow quizzically. Even Red seemed mildly interested.

"I haven't heard much about him," Rinoa commented. "Just stories about the Wutai war from so long ago. But then, Shinra's always kept a tight lid on his story, haven't they?" Squall nodded.

"It was about a year ago," he began, starting at the beginning of the long story. He looked out the window, but his eyes did not fix on the buildings beyond, instead looking back across the stretch of time. "I was on a delicate mission, and I was serving along with Sephiroth. None of you are in the Shinra military, so you don't know this, but its pretty common practice for them to declare a high-ranking soldier or SeeD dead and pull him aside for black ops. That's what happened with the all Turk members we've fought so far. I'm pretty sure that was what had happened to Sephiroth, as I'd heard he was killed long before I was assigned to work with him."

--------------------

_Squall sat back among the crates, ignoring the incessant drumming of rain upon the truck's metal roof. He tried to find a comfortable spot among the piles of crates filled with food, weapons, ammunition, and other supplies. Behind the crates, near the window connecting to the truck's cab, were a trio of regular Shinra soldiers, playing a game of cards. One man groaned, while another, a huge soldier almost too big for his armor, laughed and collected his winnings._

_Across from Squall, perched easily atop another crate, sat a tall, imposing figure. A black cloak shrouded his body, fastened across the front of his bare chest by a quartet of straps. Beneath this he wore a simple pair of loose black trousers and boots. He wore his silvery, long hair dangling down past his waist. It was clean, but somewhat messy and unkempt. Behind him, also perched on the crate, was an impossibly long _no-dachi_, the long, slender curved sword sheathed. His eyes were closed, but if they were open, they would have shone with the trademark glow of a member of SeeD._

"_Hey, either of you guys want in on the next hand?" asked the big soldier to the two specialists. Squall glanced back over his shoulder and shook his head. From across, only a slight ripple in the white hair told the soldier that Sephiroth, too, had declined. The soldier shrugged and went back to dealing out his cards._

--------------------

"We respected each other," Squall explained. "We didn't know each other long enough to be friends, but at least I knew I could trust his judgment. He didn't talk very much, and neither did I. Since I never really made much of an effort to make friends even in my own unit, there weren't really any problems. I sort of looked up to him, actually."

"What was this mission you were on?" Rinoa asked.

"There was a Mako reactor leak in the mountains around a backwater town called Nibelheim," Squall explained. "We were assigned to go there and assess the situation. There were reports of monsters attacking people and the disappearance of a search party in the mountains. The crew at the reactor was not reporting in, so we were scrambled to protect Shinra interests and technology. We were to go in, deal with the problem, and if the monster situation seemed to be too far out of hand, we were to call in a sterilization team. We couldn't let word of the problem leak; Shinra didn't want the bad PR to get out."

--------------------

"_Not too much further," the big man commented, dealing out another hand. "Once we get there, we just need to keep the town under control while you Seed boys handle the heavy lifting, right?"_

"_Clean-up is our duty," Sephiroth clarified quietly, his tone resonating with a soft power, like steel wrapped in velvet. "You simply keep things secure in the town once we arrive, and back us up as we move through the mountains."_

"_What about the lost civilians?" asked the third soldier. Sephiroth shrugged._

"_They're likely dead, or, if enough Mako is released, they may have succumbed to Mako madness." The soldiers grimaced, as did Squall. Mako madness was never a good thing; if one was exposed to too much raw Mako, it had an unhealthy effect on one's sanity, often driving people insane. Some were simply rendered catatonic; others homicidal._

"_If we do encounter them, shoot to kill," Squall advised. Sephiroth nodded assent._

"_It's the only mercy we can give them," he stated, and the soldiers reluctantly nodded._

"_Good thing we packed Mako protection," commented the soldier who had lost last round, patting one of the crates. "Don't want to-"_

_The truck suddenly flipped over, with no warning whatsoever. Crates, boxes, and men flew through the air as the vehicle flopped on its right side, the driver screaming something about a monster. Squall was smashed between a crate and the right wall, but he flexed his muscles as the boxes tumbled to a halt around him and pushed it off. Beside him, Sephiroth had caught a box and held it from crushing another soldier, while the big man helped the last one out from underneath a box that had pinned his leg. The men glanced around quickly, checking the rest of the truck, when a deep, bone-chilling roar sounded somewhere outside._

"_Sounds like one of our monsters," Sephiroth commented quietly, pulling his _no-dachi_ out from beneath a crate. He rested the sheathed sword across his shoulders and looked to Squall, who nodded._

"_You three check the driver and secure the truck," Sephiroth ordered. "You, come with me. We'll deal with this." Squall nodded and dropped a hand to his gunblade, suddenly glad that he had kept the weapon strapped to his hip. Sephiroth kicked the rear doors of the truck open and stepped out into the driving rain, a momentary flash of lightning highlighting him. Squall stepped out as well as the thunder caught up with the lightning, blasting the night. As the explosion rolled away and left only the sounds of rain pattering along the dirt and ringing on the truck, Squall scanned the area around them._

"_Where is it?" he asked quietly, and Sephiroth looked up, pointing with his right hand. Squall followed the finger, and saw something dark moving above, its wings beating the night air and keeping it aloft._

"_Dragon!" Squall exclaimed, seeing the mighty, slender serpentine beats flying through the air, its wings fanning out wide. Another blast of lightning lit up the night, and Squall saw the muscular body, the open jaws filled with sharp teeth, and the spiked tail of the beats as it circled above._

"_What's a dragon doing here?" Squall asked, and Sephiroth shook his head._

"_The Mako must have lured it," he replied. "They normally avoid human territory, but the presence of life energy has brought it here. It won't leave this region for a long time. Thus it represents a threat to citizens and Shinra personnel alike. We must destroy it." Squall nodded, drawing his gunblade as the dragon did a quick wingover and dove toward them. Sephiroth took his sword down off his shoulders, but did not draw, instead closing his eyes as his right hand closed over the handle of the blade._

"Shimarara battouryuu,_" he whispered as it came in, and then, right before the dragon was about to smash into Sephiroth, Squall saw the blade flash out. An instant later, waves of soft, rain-soaked dirt and mud flew into the air as the dragon crashed into the ground, roaring a thundering protest of pain, its one remaining wing beating the ground as the other dropped to the dirt twenty feet away._

_The dragon rose, fires beginning to lick the edges of the beast's mouth. Its head lunged forward, fires erupting in a thick, concentrated line that struck Sephiroth dead center, enveloping him in flames._

_If Sephiroth even noticed the fires, he didn't show it, instead raising his bloodstained blade, dripping in crimson rainwater, and stalked forward. The dragon roared a second time and lashed out with its tail, the muscular appendage striking at Sephiroth hard enough to crush steel. The tail smashed in and then the dragon roared again in indescribable pain, the severed tail flying past Sephiroth with its own forward momentum. The green-eyed warrior strode in, deadly and inexorable, raising his sword, and then the blade cut once more._

_The dragon's head flopped to the dirt, and the rest of its body an instant later, blood pouring out from the sliced neck and into the ground, nourishing the plants._

_Squall looked upon the dead beast, and then to Sephiroth, who stood impassively before the slain monster. He turned his eyes toward Squall and nodded, before gesturing back toward the truck. He turned and strode off into the rainstorm, and Squall followed him a moment later, circling the dragon's ripped body._

--------------------

The others listened with wide eyes as Squall related the dragon's death.

"Sephiroth's strength and power are far beyond any legends you may have heard. His skill was incredible. I wasn't even able to raise my weapon to help him as he cut the dragon apart. He was not an enemy to be taken lightly."

"Cutting up an adult dragon in only a few seconds," Quistis commented, shaking her head. "It's hard to believe."

"We righted the truck after we returned and drove on into the town," Squall continued. "We arrived late in the afternoon, after the storm had passed. Nibelheim was quiet, and we could smell the fumes from the Mako even that far out. It was bad enough that the soldiers had to don gear to protect them from the fumes. No one came out to greet us. They might have been afraid of the monsters, though they were probably more afraid of us . . . ."

--------------------

"_I like this place," one of the soldiers commented, surveying the small town. "Nice place. Kinda the reason that some of us joined the army, you know? Keeping little places like this safe from trouble is rewarding in its own way, don't you think?"_

"_Whatever floats you boat, man," another replied, scanning the area cautiously. "I'm not too keen on this place myself, actually."_

"_Too quiet," the last soldier, the big one, added._

"_They're afraid," Sephiroth replied quietly. "Of everything. A lot of the people here are missing in the mountains, dead or worse. You," He nodded to the first soldier. "Keep a watch here at the city center, on top of that water tower. You two survey the town and report back here in an hour."He turned to Squall. "You and I will question the townsfolk and see what has happened, and the extent of the knowledge of this leak."_

_The group's members nodded and fanned out to their assigned tasks. As the soldiers surveyed the area, squall took in the small town. It was quiet, almost deathly quiet, the painted white houses ringing the water tower in the town center seeming ominous, somehow. The people that lived within were less cold and silent, somehow relieved that there were actual people with authority present. He didn't mince words when he told them of the probabilities of the dead men and their intentions; they were there to kill the monsters and fix the leak. None of them appeared to have the symptoms of Mako madness, not yet, at least. There were reports of monsters nearer to the Mako reactor, but that was largely speculation; no one who had actually seen the reactor had come back alive._

_Sephiroth found much the same information, and the surveying troops reported that the town was safe enough; no monsters had come near the town itself, and they had seen none of the missing men, except for a single humanoid figure a great distance off in the mountains beyond the village._

_Sephiroth ordered them to rest up that night in the only inn in town, and the next morning they were off, assembling north of the old, abandoned mansion Shinra had built north of the town, between the mountains and the village proper. The soldiers donned protective gear to defend against the Mako fumes, but neither Squall nor Sephiroth needed them. Squall's junctions protected him, and Sephiroth explained that Mako was not harmful at all to his body._

_The mountains north of the village were a strange, alien landscape, consisting of black, marble-like rock formed into strange, twisting shapes, like blazing tendrils of black fire that had been frozen in time. There were no plants or other life forms; in fact, there was nothing at all in the bleak landscape, just emptiness and a frigid, chilly wind that cut into the group's soul. None of them complained however, and instead trudged on through the narrow passes and paths of the mountain. Within a couple of hours they were deep into the range, winding up along another mountain._

"_The maps state that the reactor is a quarter mile from here," one of the soldiers said, checking a map he was carrying. "We should find a rope bridge spanning a gap that will work as a shortcut."_

"_Scout out the landscape," Sephiroth ordered to Squall, who nodded. He moved a bit ahead of the group and took a path along their trail that led higher up on the mountain. From his greater vantage point, he could see the top of the distant reactor poking between two more twisting spikes of the mountains. He scrambled back down and reported, to which Sephiroth nodded. They moved on, the three soldiers taking the lead, Squall at the rear and with Sephiroth in the middle._

_The soldiers rounded a bend and stumbled to a halt, as standing before them was a man. A big, burly man, dressed like a villager but with blood running down the side of his face and staining his torn shirt, a handaxe in his grasp. The man turned toward them, his eyes blank. His mouth hung open, trying to mouth words._

"_Hey, are you okay?" the lead soldier asked, lowering his rifle. The man stumbled forward, moaning pitifully, the axe trembling in his hands. "Hey, get the medkit, we have a survivor-"_

"_Get down!" shouted the big soldier as the man neared him. The villager suddenly screamed out something in hate and fury and raised the axe. The soldier he was aiming for leaped back, landing on his butt as the blade sliced the air before him. The big soldier rushed forward around his falling comrade and swatted the infected villager with his rifle butt, throwing the man down._

"_Sir," the lead soldier reported over his radio. "We've encountered one of them." Behind them, Sephiroth nodded, closing his eyes._

"_Remember what I told you," he stated calmly. "These people are without hope. The only mercy we can offer them is a quick death before their sickness or starvation takes them."_

_The mad villager began to rise, and the lead soldier hesitantly raised his rifle. He shook his head slowly as his two comrades followed suit._

"_Hyne rest your soul," Squall heard Sephiroth whisper as the rifles opened up, tearing the dying, insane villager apart and throwing him to the black dirt. A few minutes later, after the soldiers had moved the dead man's corpse off the path and into a sheltered spot where he could rest in peace, they moved on, none of them saying a word._

_Two more twists and turns in the mountain had them within sight of the bridge. Only, instead of seeing just a wooden suspension bridge there, there were a dozen and more people milling around, many clad like villagers, but some in the gray and blue uniforms of Shinra reactor workers. The small mob was only fifty feet away, and as one, they turned toward the newcomers, marching forward, some on unsteady legs. All of them held weapons of some kind, anything from crafted axes and sickles to simple iron bars and rocks._

"_We'll have to cut through them," Sephiroth stated._

"_More at three o-clock!" shouted one of the soldiers. Squall looked that way, to his right, and saw a dozen more figures coming around another bend in the mountain, all equally armed, and more of them dressed as Shinra personnel. Squall surveyed the area, listing their options. They could retreat back down the path they had come, or try to blast through the group ahead. They couldn't go to their left; there was a long, sloping hill leading down to the ravine the bridge spanned. Sephiroth, however, did not opt for any of these._

"_Destroy them," he ordered, striding forward. "You four deal with the group on our flank. I will dispose of our enemies ahead." Squall recalled his felling of the great dragon, and did not doubt he would have an easy time of the insane villagers and Shinra workers. _

"_Line up," Squall ordered the soldiers, and they did so, forming into a short line, facing their enemies. Squall took up a position on the left end of the line._

"_Pick your shots," he stated. "Head or chest. Make them quick." The soldiers nodded in understanding and shouldered their rifles. Squall focused, and then, as the soldiers fired a single burst each, he opened up with a blast of magic. A fireball ripped into one man wielding a pitchfork, throwing him to the ground, and two of the maddened Shinra workers collapsed. A third groaned in pain, blood flying from his shoulder, but moved on, raising an iron bar like a club. Behind the bend, more Mako-poisoned men emerged, weapons clutched tightly._

_Then without warning, the front rank surged forward, running aggressively. The soldiers fired again, and two more infected madmen collapsed. Squall sent a blast of magic into them, a mass of frigid air that dropped two more, and then one of the insane villagers pumped his arm, hurling a sickle through the air. A scream sounded beside Squall as he stepped forward into the advancing force, his gunblade cleaving one man's head off. The big soldier joined him, raising his rifle and smashing the butt across into a villager's face hard enough to pulverize it and bend the stock._

_Behind the pair, one of the soldiers grabbed his wounded comrade and pulled the sickle from his left shoulder, and tried desperately to stem the blood flow. Squall parried a club blow and stuck his left hand into his opponent's face, blasting him hard with a bolt of lightning that hurled the man back into his comrades. Beside him, the large soldier batted one man aside with a huge arm and emptied his magazine into another pair of enemies. They were doing well, but too many of the suicidal, homicidal Mako-infected men came on._

_A bolt of incredibly bright electricity tore into the front ranks of the force of madmen, hurling many off their feet and granting the pair a momentary reprieve. Squall spun to the bolt's originator, Sephiroth, who stood with a bloodstained blade in hand and a dozen enemies cleaved behind him._

"_Retreat!" he shouted. "There's too many!"_

"_More coming up the rear path!" shouted the other soldier, tending his comrade and watching the path behind them as more victims of the Mako madness came on up that path._

"_Up the bridge, now!" Sephiroth ordered, and Squall nodded. He stepped forward, grabbing the wounded soldier and hoisting him over his shoulder, and they ran for the bridge, now clear thanks to Sephiroth. A sickle flew past, and a hand axe's handle clipped Squall's shin, but they ran on, to the wooden suspension bridge. Sephiroth bounded up, followed by the two soldiers, and Squall took up the rear with his wounded cargo. The insane villagers and workers continued to pursue, storming onto the bridge after them. As the first few charged up, the bridge began to creak and wave, and the ropes began to tear._

"_Hurry!" Sephiroth shouted. "The weight is going to snap the bridge!" They stepped up their pace, rushing as fast as they could. Another axe whipped past, missing Squall but slicing into the rope on the right side._

_The bridge jerked, and Sephiroth threw himself to the wooden boards, clutching them with all his might. The two Shinra soldiers did the same, and Squall began to do so as well, when the bridge flipped over vertically. One of Squall's hands grasped the hand of the wounded soldier, while his other grasped a crevice between two boards. Behind them, the Mako madness-inflicted people toppled off the bridge and into the ravine below._

_Above them the remaining cord began to creak and tear as well._

"_Brace yourselves!" Sephiroth shouted, an instant before the rope above snapped, and they plummeted into darkness._

_--------------------_

_Squall had survived with little more than scraped knees, managing to angle himself around so that the soldier was on his back. Squall had hit at an angle, his feet taking the brunt of the impact and then falling forward, his knees scraping along the ground. He and the soldier had rolled along for a second before coming to a stop. Squall rose and scanned the area, and the soldier stood up shakily, his wound even worse than before. Squall immediately focused and called up a healing spell, the magic mending the soldier's nasty wound. It took a few more spells before the soldier was stabilized._

_By that time, footsteps along the path heralded Sephiroth's approach, the other two soldiers with him, looking battered but otherwise fine. After a quick check on their condition, Sephiroth nodded._

"_It could have been worse," he commented. "We should get moving. According to the maps there's a series of tunnels running through the mountains that will take us up to the reactor. Once we handle the situation we'll head back to the town." _

"_We'll have to take the scenic route," one of the soldiers commented, resulting in hoarse laughter._

_The first tunnel was very close by, merely fifty feet down a narrow path. According to Sephiroth's map, it looked like this one led straight to the top of the mountain near the reactor, with a few other tunnels intersecting and a couple of larger chambers en route. The first few parts of the tunnels were dark and foreboding, and the group had to activate flares in order to see. But then, as they continued up the tunnels, the areas ahead seemed to grow brighter and brighter. Soon, the flares became redundant as the tunnels glowed as brightly as day._

_Squall and Sephiroth stepped through a passage and suddenly found themselves in a brightly-lit chamber, shining with an ethereal light. Strange types of moss and plants seemed to be growing in the vaulting chamber, and at its center was what seemed to be a stalagmite in the midst of a clear, pure pool of water. However, the stalagmite seemed to have been formed of crystal, not simple stone, and cut off at about chest height. There, on top of that mound of crystalline rock, was a perfectly formed gemstone, burning with an inner blue fire, seeming radiate pure primal energy and perfection. It was not cut, but rather naturally formed, a rough, jagged stone exuding nature's majesty in tangible waves of power._

"_A Mako fountain," Sephiroth commented as they crossed the chamber, looking in awe at the source of power. "I didn't expect to see one here. Mako energy rising up out of the earth like magma from a volcano. This sort of thing is rare, and only happens underground."_

"_What's that crystal on the top?" one of the soldiers asked._

"_Materia," Sephiroth answered. "Naturally forming, from Mako energy. Normal materia is formed by compressing Mako energy inside reactors. It's a byproduct of the process, but requires tremendous amounts of Mako energy at high pressure to do so. For such materia to have formed naturally, the fountain would have to be overflowing with Mako. Now I see why Shinra built a reactor this far into the mountains." He nodded toward the walls._

"_If we were to cut through these walls, I have no doubt we'd find the piping used to draw the Mako out of this mountain just beyond. I understand why this reactor is so important now. Shinra uses the Mako extracted here for other parts of its empire. There's no way that tiny town below could use this much energy."_

"_We haven't seen any power lines," Squall commented, and Sephiroth shrugged._

"_Probably hidden," he replied. "I don't think the people of Nibelhiem would appreciate their mountain being exploited as an energy source." he reached forward and tapped the natural materia. "Hmmm . . . what type of magic does this one produce? It would be interesting to find out."_

"_Yeah, how does it produce magic anyway?" one of the soldiers asked._

"_You're in the Shinra military and you didn't even know that?" Sephiroth replied derisively. "Materia, being produced by the natural energies of the earth, provides a direct, tangible link to the world's Mako energy. This length allows us to call forth energies depending upon the type of materia we wield." _

"_That energy's magic?" the soldier asked. Sephiroth chuckled darkly. _

"_I know a man who would skin you alive for calling it magic," he replied. "He always laughed at what he called such silly words for what man had not yet learned enough to explain."_

"_Who was that?" Squall asked._

"_Doctor Akira Hojo," Sephiroth stated. "A weak-willed, pathetic man who lives only for his science, assigned to take over the work of a much greater man. But come, we've dawdled here long enough. The reactor should be just above us."_

_Indeed, within a matter of minutes, the quintet had found their way up through the tunnels and out into the chilled night air of Nibelhiem's mountains. Up ahead, they could see the gray tower of the Mako reactor. Sephiroth nodded a she saw it._

"_Too large for that tiny town," he commented. "Even the one we built in Kalm should be larger. You three," he added, pointing to the soldiers. "You three stay outside and keep watch. We will go in and determine the problem." The soldiers saluted as Squall and Sephiroth neared the reactor, going up a flight of steps that led into a small hatch, the only entrance to the facility._

_The leaked Mako scent was even worse inside, stuffy and concentrated. The chamber was perhaps forty feet wide, with dozens of catwalks and spanning struts stretching across the expanse. Far below, Squall could see a roiling pool of Mako energy being processed._

"_The problem is likely a valve or pipe," Sephiroth stated as he stepped out across the expanse directly in front of him, walking cautiously on a narrow catwalk. Squall followed, equally careful. Eventually, they came into sight of a set of stairs, but they appeared to have been collapsed. Undaunted, Sephiroth scanned the area and spotted a chain dangling from one of the catwalks nearby, dropping lower to a wide catwalk below. He stepped over to it and began to descend. Squall followed a second later._

_They dropped down a minute afterward on the wide catwalk, one end festooned with instruments. Squall started to walk toward them, but Sephiroth held up a hand, looking below._

"_This pool," he called. "It's too big for Nibelhiem."_

"_Looks like you were right," Squall answered. Sephiroth shook his head._

"_But it's too small for leeching out energy and transferring it," he added. "Far too small." He looked up, surveying the interior of the chamber, and spotted bundles of piping leading to the walls around a door across the chamber, previously invisible to them from above. He waved Squall to follow, and he did so. The door was locked, but Sephiroth wrenched it open with one hand and stepped into the chamber beyond._

_The metal of the room was painted blood red, and the chamber was constructed like a staircase, four tiered levels rising up, each about six feet high. On each of those levels was a set of a half-dozen stainless steel pods, each with a round, porthole-like window on the front that glowed an eerie blue-green light. The piping that ran from outside into here connected with the various pods and equipment around the chamber. The Mako smell was almost overwhelming in this chamber._

"_This must be where the leak is," Sephiroth stated quietly. "No wonder they couldn't fix it. It was sealed off." Sephiroth strode up the stairs between the tiers, looking curiously at the pods._

"_What are these for?" Squall inquired, to which Sephiroth shrugged. He paused, then turned in the second tier, stepping in front of one of the pods._

"_Here is the source of the leak," he said, crouching in front of a bent pipe and a twisted valve. He quickly righted the valve and, gripping the pipe with both hands, straightened it. He then stood, and scanned the room once more._

"_Find the ventilator," he ordered, and Squall nodded. Within a couple of moments he had located the control panel for the ventilation system on the first tier and had activated it. Within seconds the Mako smell had vanished. Sephiroth sniffed the air, satisfied. He began to walk past one of the tanks and glanced into it. It was a glance, Squall would later reflect, that would change the course of history._

_He paused, and then slowly turned toward the window, eyes widening. Squall noticed this and began to approach._

"_I . . . I see," Sephiroth whispered. "So, this is what all the energy is being used for. Quite brilliant, Hojo, but this will never put you on the same level as Doctor Gast. In fact, this just goes to show how truly insane you really are."_

"_What is it?" Squall asked as he neared Sephiroth. The green-eyed man glanced to him, and then pointed. He stepped back and allowed Squall to have a look. The younger SeeD was too short, so he had to pull himself up to see, while Sephiroth stepped away, looking across the rest of the chamber._

_Within the pod was a shape, indistinct at first, but as Squall focused, he saw the twisted face, the broken and reshaped bones poking out the top of its head, and the pallid, gray skin. After several long seconds, he finally realized what it was in there, and let go of the pod, gasping in horror._

"_Human," he hissed. "That thing in there. It's . . . it was human."_

"_Prisoners, likely taken in the Wutai war, or criminals, mutated into monsters," Sephiroth answered, distracted. "Long-term exposure to moderate levels can do that. Hojo must be experimenting with dosages and intensity . . . ." He looked up to the top of the room, to where the stairs ended, and froze. There was another door up there, sealed tightly and secured as well. Imprinted on the wall above the door was the word "Jenova." Sephiroth stared at the word for a long time, not moving, eyes locked open in an expression Squall had never seen on the ultimate warrior's face: horror._

_Squall yelped in shock as Sephiroth swept his sword free of its scabbard, roaring in terrifying fury. He spun around, slashing the blade through one of the pods. The swords passed through effortlessly, and the pod exploded with a brilliant blue-green light, the fires of Mako burning moments later where the destroyed pod had once stood. Not finished, he spun again, screaming that inarticulate cry like a tortured demon, and severed the pod on the other side of the stairs, barely missing Squall._

"_No! Jenova . . . ." he cried, and struck apart another pod. "Was I . . . Was I created this way too? Am I a monster?"_

_Sephiroth stood there in the burning chamber, the room that was a monument to insanity, and watched Sephiroth as he stood there, eyes wide and chest heaving from both the exertion of his attacks and the shock of what he had considered._

_Squall had no answers for him._

--------------------

"So, Shinra was producing monsters?" Zell growled. He punched the floor furiously, but he didn't have his _ki_ focused, so he didn't do too much damage. "Damn, everything I hear about them makes me hate 'em even more!"

"We had to take the long way back to the town," Squall continued to explain after Zell's outburst. "It was morning by the time we arrived. We sent a report to headquarters, and then myself and the soldiers went to sleep. But Sephiroth seemed to disappear. We woke up late in the afternoon, and when we tried to find him, one of the villagers explained that he had seen Sephiroth head into the old mansion north of town."

--------------------

_They stepped in, sweeping the room with their rifles, and Squall followed silently. The entry chamber was vast and luxuriantly appointed, but was dark and brooding, very quiet. A stale stillness filled the air, but not as stale as Squall would have expected. Someone had come through here earlier. White light shined down from the windows on the far side of the entry hall, but was somehow muted by grayness of disturbed dust in the air._

"_All right," he ordered quietly, surveying the room. It was wide, and featured a staircase in the center leading up to a balcony above. Two large, double doors were set along the eastern and western walls of the lower floor, and two more were set on the upper walls, connected by the balcony. Everything was, or would have been, beautiful, but the thick dust settled over everything served to make it seem dull and ancient. The old mansion had been used in ancient days as a place for Shinra to conduct research, but had been abandoned for decades._

"_You three take the east wing,"Squall said. "I'll take west. Keep in contact with the radio." The others nodded and moved out. Squall hesitated briefly, drawing his gunblade before moving to the western side of the building. Something was very, very wrong about this place. Squall couldn't place it, precisely, but he imagined it was what it would feel like if someone had transformed dark, evil insanity into a liquid and soaked it into the walls. There was a vague malevolence here, pressing in on him constantly._

_He found an old drawing room on the west side that dominated most of that segment of the mansion, complete with an ancient piano. Nothing noticeable in here, he noted as he turned around and headed back out. He had almost reached the door back into the main hall when the radio he was carrying beeped. He paused and checked it._

"_What is it?" he asked, not bothering with radio protocol._

"_Sir, we spotted him," one of the soldiers spoke. He paused, a deep buzzing barely audible. "He was headed up to the second floor."_

"_Follow him," Squall ordered. "I'm on my way." he rushed outside and saw the soldiers moving up the staircase slowly. Squall followed them up._

"_In there," one of the soldiers whispered as he caught up. "He went into that bedroom down the hall." Squall nodded and took the lead. He reached the door, gunblade in hand, and tapped the door open with his weapon. Squall took a quick step in, and froze, confused._

_No one was in the small bedroom._

_Squall walked in, scanning the environment, but saw nothing. The window was firmly latched, and looked as if it had not been opened in many years, judging by the dust on it. Sephiroth couldn't have left this room._

"_You certain?" Squall asked the soldiers as they followed him in, and the one who'd spoken nodded. Squall frowned and looked about, now suspicious. The reactor had shown Squall that Shinra had a lot of secrets they liked to keep, and he hadn't seen anything yet to show where the laboratory they supposedly had here was located._

_Squall then noted the far wall, which was largely unadorned, and walked over to it. He tapped his gun blade's flat side forcefully against the wall, noting the solid ring of solid craftsmanship. He moved down a couple of steps, continuing to tap._

_By the third tap, he had hit a hollow ring of stone on blade, and nodded. He glanced around looking for a switch, but after a moment, shook his head. He pointed a hand at the wall and launched a magical blast of ice at the wall, freezing it. Then, he smashed it with his gunblade, shattering the frozen stone to reveal a hidden passage beyond._

"_You three stay up here and keep this entrance secure," he ordered, stepping into the passage beyond._

_It was a narrow stairwell leading down, a cylindrical passage lined by light wooden steps that seemed to have been specially treated to avoid rotting. The passage seemed to be soaked with that stale, rotted air, but as with outside, it seemed that a bit of reasonable freshness had found its way in here. Someone had passed through before. Squall slowly descended down the steps, keeping eyes and ears open. Far below, he could see the solid dirt and rock floor that the passage led to, far beneath the earth's surface. Squall gripped his gunblade tightly, consciously aware that he was alone in this place that reeked of evil and madness. He hadn't care much about Shinra before, but now, here, in a place that teemed with evil, his disposition toward the company was wavering. _

_After about a minute, Squall had reached the basement, stepping out into a dimly lit passage. He advanced cautiously, aware of the flickering candles along the sides of the stone tunnel, and more than once he had to watch his step as he bumped small stones. He paused after kicking one of them, noting its lightness, and bent down, examining the object._

_The SeeD recoiled in horror. It wasn't a stone; it was a human skull._

_Squall hurried on, pausing near a solidly locked wooden door. He didn't bother to go through; he heard nothing beyond that passageway, and the door was securely enough locked that it would be difficult to get past. Sephiroth hadn't gone that way. That left one last door at the far end of the hallway. He neared it, and noted faint light from beneath the wooden portal. _

_It was unlocked. Squall cautiously pushed it open, and found himself in a strange laboratory, the walls lined with books and two large capsules set up along the far wall, filled with fluid up to about man-height, tangles of cables connected to the rears of the devices. He heard a faint shuffling to his left, and saw another passage leading in that direction, lined with shelves filled with old books and lab reports._

"_Dates are marked out," murmured a quiet voice, that of Sephiroth. "X day, X month, X year, preserved biological specimen discovered in geological stratum dating at least two thousand years." Squall crept around to the passage and peeked in, seeing Sephiroth standing in the middle of the chamber, silent and brooding as he clutched one of the lab reports. _

"_X day, X month, X year, Reactor approved for use in Nibelheim for research and storage purposes. Subject moved to labs under Shinra Biological Transportation Order # 200312-AR.. Doctors Joeseph Gast, Hans Odine, and Akira Hojo, plus staff, approved for research on properties of the biological sample known as 'Jenova'. Turk Director Tashibana Tseng is to provide a Turk security detail to maintain security over the potential research into the Ancients that Jenova could bring. Authorization for human experimentation with Jenova cells pending."_

_Sephiroth paused, closing his eyes, and turned his head toward the ceiling._

"_So," he whispered quietly. "Gast, you never told me. Why did you have to die before I could learn the truth?" Sephiroth turned his head back down. "The only honest scientist on the Shinra payroll . . . ." He trailed off, and looked back to where Squall stood._

"_What is it?" Squall asked, stepping toward him, but Sephiroth shook his head._

"_Nothing that concerns you," he barked quickly. "Go, wait outside. I'll return once I'm done here . . . ."_

---------------------

"He stayed down there all night," Squall said, quietly. "If I'd known what he was reading, I would have never let him continue, but I was unaware of the knowledge Shinra had accumulated in that library of evil. It changed him, and not for the better. He never left at all that night. Never once did the lights below go out. He kept reading and reading. The four of us waited, almost until dawn, before we heard it."

"What was it?" Rinoa asked quietly, listening intently.

"Laughter."

---------------------

_Squall opened the partially cracked door into the lab, advanced slowly but firmly, gunblade drawn. He turned down the passage Sephiroth had been standing in, only to see piles and piles of discarded books and lab reports scattered along the hallway. The passage at the far end opened into a large study, with even more piles of scattered books, many simply thrown aside as if the reader had been filled with growing mania as he had continued reading. Behind a massive oaken desk, in the center of the chamber, sat Sephiroth, laughing to himself. But this laugh lacked mirth and joy, instead being a laugh of darkness and grim understanding. Slowly, he closed the very last book that had adorned the shelves and hurled it across the room. The tome smashed against the wall, pages flying everywhere._

"_What did you find?" Squall asked as he stepped into the room. Sephiroth stopped laughing and looked up at him, eyes narrowing._

"_Oh, you," he said dismissively. "One of the traitors."_

"_What?" Squall asked, confused not only by his words but also by his tone, which had been spoken entirely as a matter of fact. Sephiroth lowly stood, drawing his massive _no-dachi_, but leaving the blade in its sheath. He eyed Squall with utter contempt._

"_Ignorant, like all your kind," he hissed. "You know nothing, not of your past, or how you were once part of a glorious legacy. Thousands of years ago, there was a race of people known as the Cetra. They were a species in tune with the land and the earth. They journeyed across the earth, searching for ultimate happiness, never staying in one place for long for fear of the injury they might cause to the planet. But some of them tired of the nomadic existence. They grew complacent, and stopped moving about, instead simply becoming sedentary and remaining in one place, living off the land and its resources." Sephiroth pointed the sheathed _no-dachi_ at Squall. "_

"_They were your ancestors."_

"_How does that make me a traitor?" Squall demanded._

"_They lived off the land the Cetra tried to cultivate. But by not moving, they began to lose their powers with the earth and the world, and felt less in tune. And thus, they fed more upon the earth, and in turn lost more power. The Cetra were left alone to wander while your ancestors grew fat and complacent in their places. They had no chance when disaster came."_

"_Disaster?" Squall asked. "What kind?"_

"_Not even Shinra knows," Sephiroth replied, gesturing to the piled volumes behind him. "I've perused all the books but found nothing. All that is said is that a great disaster came from above and that the Cetra were almost entirely wiped out, while your people hid like the cowards they were. Now, all that remains of them," he threw a lab report down across the desk, "are in these reports."_

"_What does this have to do with you?" Squall asked, and Sephiroth laughed viciously._

_"Because I am Cetra!" he proclaimed. "They created me. They found a surviving Cetra in the earth's depths in the far north, and took it out. They revived it, took its cells, and from its superior genetic structure, created the ultimate living weapon. Constructed, cell by cell, from Jenova, by Doctor Gast, Hojo, and Odine decades ago._

"_Me. I was the weapon. That Cetra was named Jenova, and the lab reports here state that the creature is sealed away in suspended animation in the reactor, behind the very door that bears her name." He fixed Squall where he stood with those green eyes, glinting with the light of madness._

"_Now stand aside," he hissed. "I'm going to see my mother."_

_Squall was then flying, smashed against the wall by Sephiroth's left hand as he backhanded the SeeD out of the way and strode down the hall. It took him a long moment to recover from the hit, and stood, shaking his head. Squall snatched up the radio as Sephiroth vanished._

"_Get out of the building!" Squall ordered, rushing after Sephiroth. "Sephiroth's gone insane! Get clear!"_

_The soldiers answered with confusion, but obeyed, rushing clear of the house as Squall chased Sephiroth upstairs. He managed to get up to the second level in time to see the village go up in flames, and people scattered, screaming in terror. A black shadow stood in the center of the inferno, and Squall rushed outside, gunblade in hand._

_He found himself in the middle of the blaze as he went outside, the baking heat of dozens of burning homes surrounding him as he dashed through the fires. He passed the Shinra soldiers, one of them badly wounded, and another helping an injured woman escape the massacre. Squall heard screams from the far end of the village and rushed in that direction, only to find he was too late. A dozen villagers had been mercilessly slaughtered by Sephiroth, their bodies cloven apart. Squall scanned the hellfire, and then spotted a figure near the north side of the village, walking through the fires as if they were not even there. _

_A group of villagers, wielding axes, sickles, and pitchforks, rushed at Sephiroth, but he disposed of them almost casually, slicing them apart like rag dolls. After the last man had fallen, Sephiroth turned around and surveyed the village in all its destruction. His piercing green eyes met Squall's, and he smirked slightly, before turning away and striding through the fires to the north._

_Squall pursued._

_Hours passed, and Squall ran through the mountains. He followed Sephiroth's trail easily enough, as the few surviving Mako-infected villagers and workers had tried to challenge Sephiroth on his way, and were slaughtered brutally. He had taken a winding, aimless route, but Squall pursued relentlessly, a lion on the prowl for his prey. Soon enough, he found his way to the reactor, gunblade out and seeking blood and vengeance on the man who had so casually murdered an entire village._

_The reactor was the same as before, Squall saw, as he entered and prowled through the noisy structure. He descended to the same level as the door to the Mako pods, and stepped in, to find them all sliced apart. The door to Jenova's chamber was torn off and thrown aside callously, and beyond, Squall could see Sephiroth., standing in the middle of the chamber._

_He rushed up the steps, brandishing his blade, and leaped into the room, weapon trembling in his grasp. Sephiroth stood with his back turned, in the middle of a darkened chamber, filled with strange white barrels. Before him, atop a pedestal, was a metal statue of bone-white metal, depicting an angel._

"_Sephiroth!" Squall roared a challenge, and the silver-haired figure paused, glancing back at him._

"_Mother," he whispered quietly. "They're back again. Those maggots, those pitiful humans who stole everything." He looked to Squall. "You don't understand what she is, do you? With her power, wisdom, and magic, Jenova, my own Mother, is destined to rule all." He suddenly spun, and grabbed the white metal statue. "But you, you want to take it all away! I won't have it!" He wrenched the massive statue away, tearing it free of its hidden piping and hurling it aside. Beyond was a smoky, black-filled tube of glass, man-sized._

"_Come, Mother, he whispered. "Reveal yourself." For several long, empty seconds, nothing happened. Then, a faint blue light began to illuminate the tube, revealing the creature within._

_It was female, obviously, with blue-gray skin. Its shape was curvaceous, a perfect woman's figure. It appeared to be bound within the tube, its hands pulled behind its back and ankles tied together, and was frozen, inert. Its face was empty, a woman's visage but with no life. Silver hair, matching Sephiroth's dangled beneath a metallic helmet, connected to a strange computer behind the tube._

"_Is this it?' Squall asked, advancing. "This is your mother this alien?"_

"_Yes," Sephiroth replied, turning. "Once Mother awakens, it will begin. Our ascension to ruling this world and wiping it clean of your kind. Shinra tried to stop it, but they have failed. It all begins tonight." _

"_No," Squall denied. His gunblade rose into his hands. "No. Those people you murdered . . . I will not let that go unpunished. You have to die, Sephiroth." Squall closed his eyes momentarily, and as Sephiroth raised his _no-dachi_, unsheathing it, Squall took a step forward, wading in . . . . _

----------------------

"And that's it," Squall whispered.

"What?" Zell protested. "That's it? What kind of bullshit is that? What happened next?"

"I don't know," Squall replied honestly. "I can't honestly figure that out. Sephiroth, by all rights, should have killed me, or I shouldn't have gotten away intact. But I did. I don't remember what happened next. All I do know is that the next thing I remember is waking up in a village called Gongaga, further down the coast from Nibelheim. I was pretty torn up. The people there took care of me, though it took me a month or so to recover from my injuries. Sephiroth must have hurt me pretty severely. Ever since then, I've been acting as a mercenary. I came to Midgar looking for mercenary work, and that's when I met Zell."

"So, Shinra believes you're dead?" Rinoa asked, and Squall nodded.

"I paid off a hacker to do some poking around in Shinra's personnel files," he explained. "He found that Shinra had never even acknowledged the mission's existence. I was reported killed in action. No obituaries, even for the regular soldiers, who weren't even acknowledged as existing. Sephiroth is also reported dead, but that was nothing new."

"Sephiroth is supposed to be dead," Quistis said. "But they reported him gone over a decade ago. Like you said, he could have simply been pulled aside." Squall nodded.

"So, what is he wants?" Zell asked. "To wipe out all humans?"

"That sounds like his plan," Squall replied. "I intend to find him and put a stop to him."

"What about Shinra?" Zell added. "You know they'll be after us too." Squall nodded again.

"We can't leave Shinra alone," he replied. "They'll be dogging us every step of the way. Make no mistake, this won't be easy. But it's all we can do. Once we've finished up with Sephiroth, we'll deal with Shinra."

"Damn straight," Zell replied. "I'm with you on that."

"Same here," Quistis added with a nod.

"I'm going too," Rinoa added. "If what Sephiroth says is true, if he is and Cetra, like me . . . Maybe he'll have some answers." Squall glanced to where Red was, still basking in the sunlight.

"As I have said," Red added quietly from where he lay. "I will walk with you at least until I see my homeland again."

"Then its settled," Squall finished. "We'll rest here and then move out in the morning." The others nodded, and began to go about the process of settling down for the night. However, as Red watched them, he paid careful attention to Squall.

_What a fascinating story_, he mused.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ah. Yes. Its done. Took me long enough. Gotta clear all the stuff out before the big huge battle in Gunblade, anyway! But ya'll a re much blessed. After all, you get TWO chapters, on the same day, and they're both huge! Madness!

There were a lot of differences, especially int he people infected by Mako. Note the RE4 references in there, as the insane workers and villagers are essentially like the villagers from Resident Evil 4.

This chapter also saw a lot of Sephiroth fighting, and showing my take on him. He's rutheless, murderous, and a killer, and not innocent in any way. He revels in massacre. There won't be any redemption for him in my fic.

Anyway, what else? Not much. Pay attention carefully in this chapter, you'll pick up on some big clues to the future. Then again, maybe not. I'm all too subtle sometimes. XD

Anyway, the shout-outs.

-Angel-Brokensorrow: Heck yeah, I loved it when in Bets of Both worlds, Daz would put FFVIII references and scenes in. I always read his killing of the X-ATM092 and I thought that it never worked without Quistis gunning it down. Then, I had this crazy idea in which the Warthog from Halo would be one of the vehicles they rode in during the escape, and well, heh. The rest is history.

Laguna does have a big role in this. Very big. Even more influential than his role in FFVIII, I think. His hand has already been felt throughout the story. Pay careful attention to the clues I leave. The story has only just begun.

-Kaiser-Kun: Argh. Before I forget. "Tonfa." A tonfa is basically a police nightstick, like the clubs the Shinra MPs use in the game. its actually a Chinese weapon, but is very efefctive and used by police forces around the world. Any police baton I usually refer to as a tonfa.

Anyway, glad to see you've gotten some inspiration. Selphie's nunchaku will be very similar to the one in Gunblade: long metal bars with a laong chain, used both for swinging and for hand-to-hand combat. And i agree, squall fits on a bike even mor ethan Cloud. Like Aaron, I suggest you read "The Omega" by Daz Shier. Posisbly the best FFVIII fanfic, ever. I laughed, I cried, and the ending just...wow. I truely felt closure with FFVIII's story after that. (even if he never did get to explain why Squall was the only one who could kill Draven...oops, was that a spoiler? XD)

You may be interested when it comes to the gunfighters here....XD Airship will likely by Highwind.

-Daniel Wesley Rydell: Very good guesses, I do have to commend you on them. Like i said, your logic is one I began to follow in my story, but began to shift it to accomadate more, and also to add in that wonderful element of surprise. Sorry for the lateness in the updates.

-Arnath Nightblade: YES! Red is in it! I loved Red, he was one of my favorites, and I couldn't find anyone quite capbale of replacing him. Summons may exist, but will likely be FFVIII summons, not FFVII ones.


	12. Fight and Flight

_Chapter 11: Fight and Flight_

It was early the next morning when Squall awoke. He sat up in his bed in the inn, and scanned the room, feeling somewhat ill at ease. Something was wrong, but what, he didn't know. He glanced to the window, and saw that Red XIII was gone. That didn't alarm him; he'd heard the creature get up in the middle of the night and move off into the city, apparently not taking that long with his rest.

Quickly, Squall stood up and moved to the window, stepping quietly and cautiously as he did so. He pressed himself against the wall and peeked out the window.

Kalm was still calm, filled with peace and tranquility. No one had risen during these early morning hours, and the town was quiet. The silence was enough that he could hear Rinoa's breaths from the bed near the window over the ambient noise of distant bird calls and lightly blowing wind. Squall continued his scan, momentarily worried that perhaps Shinra had come looking, but he saw nothing to indicate any Shinra presence, although the corporate army could be filling the entire village, lurking in the shadows and waiting to strike. But somehow, that didn't seem to be the case for Squall. There was this definite feeling of unease, but Squall would have known if Shinra was in town.

He turned his head, craning his neck as he searched, and then paused as he looked south. No more than a mile away, atop a hill just barely visible over the rooftops of the village, was a solitary figure. Squall could not make him out at this distance, but he could feel the green eyes piercing him from even that far away. He felt a momentary spike of fear that the figure would advance, but it did not come. Rather, the silhouette simply remained where it was for a long moment, before seeming to vanish into the morning wind, as if it had never existed.

Sephiroth.

Squall stared out at the distant hill for a long time, before finally, slowly, moving away from the window. He almost moved toward the stairs, but stopped, realizing that any chase he gave now would be fruitless, and he would be leaving his comrades behind. Finally, after a long moment, he sighed and sat back down on his bed.

Sephiroth, Squall knew, would already be long gone by the time he'd be able to get out there with his gear. And knowing what he did, Squall could never defeat Sephiroth by himself. Even with his comrades it would be questionable, and they'd never get up and be ready in time to catch him anyway.

Squall laid back down on the bed, but as he did so, Squall told himself that even if Sephiroth had gotten away for now, they would eventually catch up with him in the end.

A couple of hours later the rest of the group had begun to wake up, but Squall had never fallen back asleep. Instead, he had simply stared up at the ceiling, waiting for the others to rise, and running back through his painful memories.

Rinoa was the first to wake up, and almost immediately, she had sensed Squall's unease and anxiousness. She sat up in her bed and glanced over at Squall, seeing his blue eyes glowing in the darkness. It took her a moment to figure out why he was so tense, but she quickly determined what the problem was from her other senses.

"Was he here?" she asked quietly, almost startling Squall. He turned his head to where she was sitting up, her face framed in the soft early morning sunlight, and finally nodded.

"Moving south," he said in a low voice. "I'm not sure . . . But I think he wants me to follow him." Squall rolled over and began to sit up, and heard Rinoa doing the same behind him. He glanced back at her to see her already getting together her gear together. When he glanced at her quizzically, she simply shot him a quick glance and returned to getting dressed and ready.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked. "This is your mission, isn't it?"

"I wouldn't call it that," Squall answered, but followed suit, getting his gear together, When Quistis and Zell awoke later on, Squall filled them in, and the pair were also quick to get their gear together and be ready for pursuit. Within a matter of minutes, the quartet were outside the hotel, not even pausing to sign out.

"We'll need to stock up on some extra equipment," Squall added as they moved out. "Survival gear, rations, the usual."

"On it," Quistis replied. "I had a hand in getting all our gear together with AVALANCHE, so I can probably dig something up."

"I'll go with you," Zell added. "No sense in use getting separated. Shinra's after our asses, after all."

"Alright," Squall replied with a nod. "I'll see about getting a vehicle or some other transport. Rinoa, stay with me."

"What about Red?" she asked, and Squall shrugged.

"Knowing him, he'll find us when he's ready," the former SeeD replied. "Let's go." The group began to split up, moving around the village, Quistis and Zell headed for the freshly opening stores on the north side of town while Squall and Rinoa moved off, looking for some form of transportation.

"What are we looking for?" she asked him as he ducked into an alley.

"Something not being watched," he replied evenly.

"You're going to steal a vehicle?" Rinoa asked, and Squall nodded.

"Let's just hope they have insurance," he said quietly, almost sounding dead serious, but not quite. Rinoa already knew how to pick out his jokes, however well-hidden they were.

"If you're looking for a vehicle, you'd best hurry," came a quiet voice from above them, and the pair stopped instantly, looking up.

"Red," Rinoa breathed, a bit startled by the sudden voice. The fiery beast was perched on a rooftop directly above the alley, looking west. Rinoa heard a faint sliding noise next to her, and glanced down to see Squall sliding his gunblade back into its sheath. Apparently, he had been as startled as she.

"What's the problem?" Squall asked quickly. Red nodded toward the west.

"Shinra is approaching," he hissed. "I count more than twenty vehicles, laden with men. I estimate . . . ." He squinted his good eye, focusing on the distant enemy. "About eighty men. We have less than fifteen minutes before they get here."

"Then we've got to move," Squall said quickly. "Red, go and alert Zell and Quistis. They're north of here, where the shops are located." The creature nodded his head and bounded off over the rooftops, seeming to vanish.

"We've got to find a way out of here," Squall added to Rinoa, who nodded, and they broke into a run down the alley.

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"Water, flares, long range encrypted radio, protein rope-" Zell gagged at the sound of that. Quistis glared at the brawler momentarily, before going back over everything they had outside the survival store. "Medical supplies, potions of every kind we could need, binoculars, and two compact sleeping tents, camouflaged, as you wanted. That should be everything."

"Blew through half our savings," Zell commented.

"Better than sleeping in the rain with no food."

"Protein rope, or no food?" Zell replied, crossing his arms and pondering. "Y'know, starving actually sounds preferable."

"Hush," she replied, looking west.

"Why?" Zell shot back. "I can complain all I want, can't I? Trust me, Quistis, you haven't heard me-"

"I said quiet!" she hissed. Zell paused, and Quistis nodded toward where she was looking. "Don't you hear that?"

"Yeah," Zell muttered after a moment. "Vehicles. Sounds like a big convoy. You're thinking Shinra?" She nodded. "Good. Great minds think alike."

"Doesn't sound like we have much time," Quistis said as she slowly took out her whip. Zell nodded grimly.

"Need to meet up with Squall," he said, and the two moved off, away from the shops and into the town. They traversed the alleyways for a short distance, before Quistis paused again.

"They're here," she said grimly, and Zell paused to look outside, into the town center, and spotted a transport with the Shinra logo roll past and come to a stop nearby.

"There's one at every party," Zell muttered.

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The convoy rumbled into the middle of Kalm, two dozen heavily armed combat vehicles. Assault vehicles much like the jeeps that Squall and his comrades had battled and stolen inside Midgar ringed a series of troop transports, and a pair of oblong command and control transports rolled into the center of the village. The Shinra troops deployed smartly, fanning out as other assault vehicles moved around the town, closing off all other exits. Within minutes, the troops had Kalm surrounded and isolated.

One of the command vehicles opened up, and Tseng stepped down the ramp, followed by a green clad officer. The Turk's katana rested on his shoulder, sheathed and secure, as he surveyed his men deploying swiftly.

"Initiate house-to-house searches," Tseng ordered. "The profile on this village points to some citizens being anti-Shinra. Treat them as unfriendly." The officer nodded quickly and rushed back inside, while Tseng shook his head.

"Two platoons?" he muttered darkly. "Eighty men is not enough, Heidegger, and you should know that, you fool!" But no, the fat slob had ignored Tseng's recommendations for three times that number in his hunting force. The general wanted to put a large force outside Fort Condor. Under the new President's own orders, he was going to crush that fortress with all the might he could muster. Only a paltry force had been sent to the villages surrounding Midgar to search them, and Tseng knew that if he encountered Squall and his comrades, things would be rough with only eighty men. While Tseng was confident that they couldn't stand against that many Shinra troops directly, he had no doubts that if they were doing the smart thing, they would nibble away at his men until there were few enough that they could escape. He'd seen what they had done to the response team in the headquarters building. Twenty-seven men in under a minute.

Did Heidegger realize who they were up against?

The Turk shook his head after a moment. He had to work with what he was given. To that end, the Turk commander moved out into the village.

"Sir?" asked the officer, coming back out. "Where are you going?"

"Where else?" Tseng replied. "I'm joining the hunt." The Turk strode off into the village, his katana bouncing on his shoulder.

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Squall had found what amounted to the strangest means of escape from Kalm Rinoa could imagine. Still, she said nothing, instead simply looking up in surprise and a bit of wonder at the pair of huge yellow birds he had "procured" and led into the new alley they were sheltering inside.

"Chocobos?" she asked, and he nodded as he fitted a saddle onto the creatures. They were huge, twice a man's height, with short but thick wings and long, powerful legs. Thick yellow feathers covered the birds' bodies, and their heads were held high, muzzles over their beaks. One warbled quietly as it looked around with big black eyes.

"Domesticated, don't worry," he added.

"I don't even know how to ride one," Rinoa commented, but Squall shook his head.

"I'll drive," he stated. 'The others should have some idea of how to ride them as well."

"What about Red?"

"I can handle myself," came the creature's quiet call, starling Rinoa again. She spun around, to see him at the end of the alley, crouched low to the ground.

"Will you stop that!" she hissed as loud as she dared. She relaxed a moment later. "Zell and Quistis?"

"They know," Red commented. "I could not reach them in time, though. Shinra is already here."

"Damn," Squall hissed. He turned to Rinoa. "Keep an eye on them." He handed her the reins to the pair of birds, which she took hesitantly. "Red, stay here with Rinoa."

"Where are you going?" Rinoa asked insistently as Squall moved off. He paused and looked back to her.

"We need a distraction," he stated as he pulled out one of his combat knives. "I'll be making one."

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A three man fire team strode down the street, sweeping the area with their rifles. The Shinra soldiers were awake and alert, and had been for some time. They suspected that the enemy was present in this town, and were mentally prepared to engage them on sight. The three men moved with hair-trigger alertness, fingers hovering over the triggers of their rifles, ready for anything.

That was the problem, Zell mused as he crouched behind the chimney stack of one of the buildings, looking down at the men. He'd expended all of his grenades in Midgar, and even now, he doubted he would have used them. Yes, he wanted to kick Shinra ass, but he wasn't stupid enough to risk alerting the entire enemy force just to kill three men. He needed an opening to take these soldiers out, and it would have to be quick and silent.

Zell leaned back and sent a nod to Quistis, who was crouched on the rooftop across the street. She nodded in reply, and he waved a hand for her to stay back. She shied back behind the cover of her chimney stack as well as the soldiers passed. The enemy was smart, and using good tactics; one was sweeping before them, and the other two kept checking to the sides and directly behind the group. The fact that two men were in position to cut down an enemy coming from behind meant that the group was ready for an ambush.

Zell waved again, and tapped his ear, followed by a slashing gesture with one hand, cutting diagonally. Quistis nodded in understanding at the signal, one they'd devised when AVALANCHE had first been formed. She took out her knife and dug it into the tiled rooftop, prying one of the ceramic tiles off. Zell rose from his crouch as the team passed beneath them, and Quistis threw the tile down hard, off the edge of her roof and directly across from Zell as the Shinra troops passed before him. The tile hit the pavement with a loud crack and shattered into smaller pieces.

The soldiers whirled and leveled their rifles. They hesitated for a brief moment, seeing the shattered tile, and stood down a second later. One man raised a hand to his radio to report the contact while the others began to turn away, scanning the area.

A balled fist slammed into the back of one man's neck as he turned, shattering his vertebrae, and the second man was being spun around, his chin grasped in Zell's left hand and turned one way, his shoulder in the other hand and going the opposite direction. The soldier's neck snapped like a twig in the brawler's hands, and he darted forward at the last soldier, who was only just becoming aware that something was wrong behind him. He began to turn, when Zell's arm wrapped around the soldier's neck and squeezed hard, crushing his windpipe and silencing the man. The other hand shot low, to the soldier's rifle, and with a single flick of Zell's fingers, the brawler broke the man's wrist. The rifle clattered to the pavement. Another twist to the man's neck, and Zell finished the shocked and breathless soldier. He let the body slump to the pavement, and looked up at Quistis, giving her a thumbs up at the silent elimination.

Then an armored light assault vehicle rumbled around the corner, a heavy machinegun mounted on its rear. The driver and gunner gaped at the scene for an instant, and then the headlights flicked on to blinding high beams.

"Freeze!" came a shout from the driver, and the gunner leveled his weapon at Zell. The brawler let out a loud and heartfelt curse and backflipped, kicking up into the air, and was chased a moment later by gunfire from the machinegun. The rattling of the heavy weapon filled the air, and beneath the noise's cover, Quistis dropped off the rooftop, right beside the assault vehicle. She jumped up to the side of the vehicle, drawing another knife from her belt, and stabbed it into the gunner's throat before he'd registered her approach. The man cried out in terrified shock and pain and fell away from his position, the gun going silent. The driver looked back up in time to see Quistis uncoil her whip and snap it at him. The chain shot down beneath the machinegun, and struck the soldier in the side of his head, almost tearing it off. The man toppled halfway out of his seat, blood gushing from the side of his helmet.

Quistis heard shouts over the vehicle's radio, and could hear men approaching from the street this vehicle had come from. She turned and checked in that direction, to see a half-dozen Shinra troops coming down the street, rifles raised. Thinking fast, Quistis grabbed the machinegun's controls and rotated it in their direction. She sighted one man in the weapon's sights and pulled the triggers.

The gun roared, and the man in question was ripped apart. She turned the cannon, pouring fire into the on coming enemy, who quickly scattered in shock and confusion, and cut one more soldier down before the others found cover. Quistis kept firing, keeping them pinned down, but then caught movement out the corner of her eye. She glanced that way, ready to duck away in case it was another enemy soldier, but relaxed when she saw it was only Zell, grabbing a bandoleer of grenades from one dead man's belt. He pocketed the bombs in his vest, except one which he popped the safety pin off. The brawler moved toward the vehicle's gas tank, and Quistis nodded. She kept up the fire for a moment, and then released the triggers, hopping off and moving away as Zell removed the arming pin and stuck the grenade into the gas port. Then he was running as well, counting down the seconds.

The Shinra troops came running as the gunfire slackened off, not hesitating to pursue the enemy, and as they neared the assault vehicle, one climbed up into the back, ready to use the machinegun against their enemies.

Then the grenade detonated, and the vehicle, the corpses, and the soldiers vanished in a cloud of fire and violence.

"I think we got their attention!" Zell shouted as they ran down the street, away from what was doubtless more Shinra troops coming in response to the major disturbance.

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A rifle poked around the corner on the transport as the soldier checked a sound from the other side of the vehicle. Squall's hand closed over the rifle's muzzle and pulled it hard, yanking the weapon out and pulling the surprised soldier with it. His left hand, clutching one of his knives, stabbed out and in, into the soldier's visor, and his right hand moved forward, pushing the corpse down as he yanked the knife out of the suddenly dead man's face.

Behind the dead soldier were two equally shocked Shinra troops. Squall smoothly released the knife with his left hand, the right reaching up to grasp the knife's tip. His right hand whipped across as his left grabbed the closer man's rifle and pulled it to the left and forward, away from Squall. He released the knife with his right hand, and it whipped into the second soldier's faceplate. Squall spun on the third soldier, whose rifle he still clutched, and grabbed the other knife of his belt. It flashed out and across, slashing the man's throat. Squall slammed his elbow into the man's chest and guided the dying soldier to the pavement while his other hand kept the rifle from clattering to the ground. Once the soldier was down and dead, Squall set the rifle down and stalked forward, silently moving into the ring of troop transport trucks, pausing only to recover his other knife.

He moved soundlessly, like a ghost moving among the graves in the stillness of night, his eyes open and senses primed, always alert. Movement and noise surrounded him: the laughter of two guards, the reports from search teams, static on radios, the cocking and loading of guns, and an officer barking orders. Shadows danced between vehicles as men moved about, but none of their owners came along Squall's path as he moved in silence.

He paused at the next truck, listening intently, and heard the sound of a patrolling soldier nearing his position. Moving fast, Squall ducked and rolled under the truck, onto his back beneath the vehicle. He grasped the undercarriage and pulled himself up, putting his body flush against the bottom of the vehicle, becoming almost invisible in the shadows beneath it. The guard passed by a moment later, never noticing a thing. After he passed, Squall dropped back down to the pavement and crawled out from under the vehicle and out into the open once more. He moved to the edge of the truck and peeked out, seeing another pair of enemy soldiers on guard a short distance away, on the other side of the collection of trucks. The former SeeD turned his head, scanning his surroundings, and spotted another vehicle close by, this one laden with crates and boxes. A supply vehicle. That might have what he needed.

Squall detached himself from the truck he was hiding behind, and crossed the short distance between the two vehicles, his silent footfalls never heard by the enemy. Thirty seconds later he had reached the vehicle in question and hopped up silently inside the covered cargo area.

Rifles, ammunition, rations, gasoline . . . The truck had a lot of stuff in the back, everything a small army would need to keep operating, but what Squall really needed was hidden at the front of the cargo bed, under a box of flares: C4 detonating charges and timers. Squall grabbed a half-dozen blocks of C4 and an equal number of timed detonators, and synced them for ten minutes. He also made sure to grab a remote detonator so he could trigger them early if necessary. Once that was done, he hopped back out of the truck when no one was around, and slipped underneath the vehicle, attaching one bomb to the underside of the supply truck.

Five minutes later, Squall had successfully placed bombs on two more supply vehicles, a troop transport, a communications truck, and a command vehicle. He armed the final bomb, and began to move away from the command vehicle, when he heard the cocking of a rifle. Squall spun toward that sound, in time to see the pair of guards he'd seen earlier standing over the corpses of the slain men. One was hastily speaking into his radio while the other was scanning the area, looking for the killer. It didn't take him long to spot Squall, standing in the open. He let out a shout and raised his rifle.

The former SeeD grimaced. Things were about to get messy, he realized, and he pulled out the remote detonator as he scrambled toward an unoccupied LRV.

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"Where did they go?" Tseng demanded, one hand holding the sheath on his shoulder, while the other grasped the handle of the katana. Before him was the owner of the small hotel where one Kalm citizen had reported a group of people with a red beast in tow had spent the night.

"I don't know, I swear!" the terrified innkeeper replied as the trio of Shinra soldiers held him place in his chair. Two men held his arms and shoulders, while the third one was standing behind the man, using his tonfa to choke the innkeeper. Three other Shinra soldiers towered over the man, doing nothing more than appearing intimidating, which was something they succeeded at.

"Did you hear anything?" Tseng demanded, fingers opening around his blade and closing again. "Did they say anything about plans or destinations?"

"No!" the man cried quickly. "They didn't talk about going anywhere! Please, let me go, I don't know anything important about these people-"

"We'll decide that," Tseng replied, scowling. "How else do I know you're not a sympathizer with them? Did they mention anything important? Any odd names, or people?"

"No," the man replied, and then stopped. "Wait, wait, they did! I overheard them mention a man's name."

"Who?" Tseng asked.

"I think it was Sefer . . . No, Sephiroth! Yes! That was his name! One guy was talking about him to the others. I heard them say something about following him."

"They're hunting Sephiroth too?" Tseng mused, and then nodded. "Release him." The soldiers immediately let the man go, releasing his arms and pulling the tonfa away.

"You have my thanks," Tseng stated. "You cooperation is appreciated." The innkeeper nodded after a moment, and then Tseng made a slashing gesture. The soldier behind the man nodded and pulled his sidearm. He stuck it to the back of the man's head and pulled the trigger. The bullet blasted into his skull and shredded the innkeeper's brain.

"They mentioned Sephiroth," Tseng hissed. "We can't let that knowledge get out. Clean up this mess, we'll blame it on Squall." The soldiers moved to dispose of the corpse when one man paused, checking his radio.

"Sir Tseng, there are reports of a disturbance! North side of town!"

"Get all available units up there right now!" Tseng snapped. He pulled out his radio headset and put it on. "How many hostiles?"

"Just two, sir!"

"Belay that last order!" Tseng snapped. He activated his radio. "Cordon that area and don't let them run! But keep your eyes open, we may have more to deal with outside that region!" he moved outside and ran toward the center of town, where the trucks were positioned. "Captain, keep your men on alert, this may just be a distra-"

Tseng was cut off when a massive wave of force slammed into him. The ring of trucks and command vehicles exploded an a roiling ball of yellow fire and destruction. Pieces of vehicles and men were hurled out of the blast radius, smashing into the surrounding buildings and raining around the Turk as he rolled across the pavement. Tseng stood immediately, and shook his head in an effort to escape the ringing sensation in his ears, and heard, very distantly, the sound of an engine starting He scanned the destruction, narrowing his eyes in the yellow light, and saw a single LRV burst free of the destruction, its sides on fire as it rolled out. A Shinra trooper was clinging to the rear of the vehicle, dragged along on the ground, and driving it was-

"Squall!" Tseng roared, and unsheathed his blade. The former SeeD must have heard the Turk's roar, as he turned his head toward the man. Squall shifted directions, turning sharply and flinging the hapless soldier on the back across the ruined town center, and came to bear on Tseng. He accelerated his vehicle, driving toward the Turk, who narrowed his eyes and grasped his katana with both hands. Tseng crouched slightly as Squall drove towards him, and as the vehicle neared, the Turk took a quick step forward and leapt, flipping his katana over for a downward stab.

Squall had been expecting Tseng to move aside quickly and try to get on board the vehicle, but hadn't been expecting the daring leap into the air by the Turk. The Shinra assassin landed lightly on the hood of the LRV and stabbed forward, into the window of the vehicle. The curved blade of Tseng's sword smashed through the bulletproof glass and almost struck Squall in the head, but he ducked and rolled to the side, out of the vehicle. Squall hit the pavement hard, but rolled with the impact and came up on his knees. The LRV drove on, out of control, and Tseng worked quickly to extract his blade. He managed to remove the sword and leap off the hood of the vehicle an instant before it smashed into the front of a store.

Squall was up and running as fast as he could, toward the shakily rising Turk. Tseng saw the former SeeD rushing at him and grasped his katana in both hands, holding the blade low to the ground behind him. He roared a challenge as Squall closed in.

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Quistis and Zell rounded the corner of another street, an ran headlong into a quartet of Shinra soldiers. Both sides were so surprised by the impact that Zell and Quistis were able to bull straight through them, knocking a pair of the enemy down before wheeling around to face the Shinra troops.

Quistis' rante snapped up in a sudden strike, the blade stabbing into one soldier's chest as it did so, and ripping out the other side of his torso. Zell, as he spun around, raised one of his feet and planted a devastating kick into another man's faceplate. The impact was hard enough to send the man into a spinning backflip. The other two soldiers, the pair the two fugitives had knocked down, had finished scrambling to their feet and were raising their weapons when a red blur dropped down behind them. One man screamed and toppled, blood flying from his backside, and the other began to turn when he was bowled over, Red XIII leaping onto his chest and his fangs finding the man's jugular. An instant later the soldier was silenced.

"Red!" Quistis said, obviously relieved to see a comrade. "Where are the others?"

"Squall is buying us some time," the beast explained. "Rinoa has your means out of town."

"'Your'?" Zell echoed, but Red didn't speak, instead simply bounding down the street.

"Follow me!" he hissed, and the pair chased after him. They ducked through a couple of alleys and down one street, moving across the town. Midway through a shuddering blast shook the ground, and Zell almost fell flat on his face from the tremors.

"What was that?" he demanded.

"Our distraction, I suppose," Red replied, looking in the direction of the town center, where plumes of smoke could be seen rising high into the sky. He began moving once more. "We must hurry!"

Zell and Quistis followed Red XIII through the alleys for a short distance, hearing the distant shouts of Shinra troops. They rounded another corner and entered another alley, within which was Rinoa . . . And a pair of huge birds.

"Chocobos." Zell's word was neither a question nor an exclamation, but a simple statement. "Squall grabbed us a pair of chocobos." Rinoa shrugged helplessly.

"All he could find," she replied. "I hope one of you knows how to ride these things." Zell grinned and tapped his chest.

"Grandpa Zangan showed me how to ride a few when I was younger," he replied. "Not too hard, though I don't think I'll have time to show you how to ride. You'll just have to hang on tight."

"Those birds are strong, but they can't carry too many passengers," Quistis added. "Only two people per bird. And I don't know how to ride them either."

"I'll take the lead," Zell replied, moving to one of the birds. He met its eyes for a second, and reached up, patting the side of its head a few times. The creature warbled a moment, and lowered its head slightly, Zell accepted the invitation and climbed up onto the creature's back, setting his feet in the stirrups.

"Someone care to join me?" he asked. "The other person will have to get on the other bird. I'll grab its reins and lead it on, you'll just have to hang on." Quistis glanced to Rinoa, who waved for her to get on with Zell. Quistis did so hesitantly, but with a helping hand from the brawler she got up and settled in in front of him.

"Don't get any ideas," she joked.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Zell replied. Rinoa mimicked his earlier motions, and when the other chocobo dipped its head as well, she climbed on. It was a bit difficult for her at first, but the large bird helped her by dropping to its belly once it figured out she couldn't climb up very well. Rinoa settled herself into the saddle, and handed the reins to Zell when the bird rose again. Zell gave them to Quistis, bidding her to hold on tight. She did so, and Zell was about to start when he paused and looked to Red.

"Go on," Red replied with slightly bared teeth, something that seemed to amount to a grin. "I'll keep up, don't worry."

"If you say so," Zell replied. Red kept on surprising him, but if he thought he could keep up with a pair of chocobo at full speed, Zell wouldn't argue. He tapped the side of the chocobo's ribs with his heels, and the bird immediately moved out. The second one followed suit as Quistis pulled its reins, apparently knowing the routine. Both women held on tightly as the birds left the sheltered alleyway and burst out onto the streets.

"Hold on to your butts!" Zell roared, and with a harder tap to his bird's ribs, the riding animal burst into full gallop.

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Squall normally kept his cool and didn't respond to challenges. But, here, now, some warrior's impulse overtook him as he closed with Tseng. He opened his mouth and growled an answer to that challenge, raising his gunblade high for a cleave. As he neared to within a few steps of Tseng, the Turk suddenly stepped forward, and viciously slashed up with his katana as Squall came in. The former SeeD tucked in his belly and came to a complete stop, the deadly edge of Tseng's weapon cutting the air in front of him. As the narrow blade passed before Squall, he chopped down.

Tseng snapped his sword across faster than Squall imagined he could, slamming it into the cleaving gunblade and knocking it away. The katana flipped over and slashed back across, but Squall quickly ducked, the blade cutting the air over his head, and cleaved across with his gunblade. Tseng managed to bring his blade back around, the blade pointed vertically at the pavement, and intercepted Squall's gunblade, stopping it cold. Squall saw the impact between the slender sword and his heavy weapon, and knew there was more to Tseng's sword than met the eye.

The Turk flicked the blade up, trying to slice into the still-ducking Squall's face. The former SeeD spun to the right, twisting his body out of the way as the razor-sharp edge flew past. Tseng brought the sword to stop in mid-cut and slashed across with blinding speed, almost cleaving into Squall's head. The Revolver shot up and caught the blade bare inches from Squall's nose, the metal ringing clearly in the midst of the burning flames and screams of dying and wounded men.

Squall broke away from the attack and came back in with an arcing slash at Tseng's head. The Turk caught the attack with a quick, measured parry and deflection with his katana, throwing the Revolver up high, and then quickly angled his blade forward for a stab. Squall ducked and twisted, his skull barely getting out of the line of Tseng's deadly thrust. The Revolver smashed down hard onto the katana, driving it down into the pavement. The blade actually dug into the street, partially wedging itself in for a brief moment. Tseng tugged furiously, and the blade began to slide out, but in that moment, Squall struck with a brutal left cross that smashed into the Turk's chin. He came up with a hard smash with his right hand, the butt of his gunblade impacting between the Turk's eyes and throwing him off his feet to crash to the pavement, groaning in pain. Tseng began to rise, but the tip of a gunblade gave him pause. He looked up the weapon, at Squall, towering over him.

"Finish me, then," the Turk growled, understanding and accepting his loss of this battle.

Squall didn't reply, any words he would have said cut off by the pounding of feet on the street. He glanced in the direction of the approaching charge, expecting Shinra reinforcements had arrive, and was partially correct. Half a squad of Shinra troops were rounding a building nearby, but a pair of huge yellow birds chased the men, running them down and crushing them into the pavement. Squall spun back to Tseng and smashed his boot into the side of his head, blasting him into unconsciousness, and spun back toward the oncoming chocobo.

"Squall!" Zell roared, urging his bird on. The former SeeD skittered to the side, near the one Rinoa was riding. As they neared, he sheathed his gunblade and held out a hand, grasping the bird's reins as it rode past and kicking up into the air. The momentum of the charging bird lifted him up into the air, and he pulled hard, bringing himself over and onto the bird's saddle. The running mount wasn't perfect, and Squall grimaced as some pain rolled up from between his legs, but he didn't complain as he settled in behind Rinoa.

"Let's get out of here before they figure out what the hell happened!" Zell shouted, and Squall honestly agreed with him. The pair of chocobos, Red bounding along beside them, galloped out of Kalm while the remaining Shinra troops were still converging on the site of the cataclysm in the middle of town.

------------------------------

Three hours had passed since the escape from Kalm, and with no sign of Shinra pursuit. Squall had taken the lead as they rode their chocobos south, in the direction he had seen Sephiroth headed for. After the first hour they had slowed down somewhat, mostly because Squall figured Red could use the slower pace. However, the fiery beast had seemed more irritated with the slower pace than grateful for a breather, and so Squall had accelerated once more. Red never tired, it seemed, as they moved through a long, wide valley between two mountain ranges.

Zell had been keeping an eye to the north and west, in case Shinra troops would begin pursuit, but nothing came as the distant city of Midgar disappeared around the mountains. Or at least, nothing came before noon.

As the sun reached its apex, Red suddenly stopped, and looked up to the sky, narrowing his good eye. He turned back to the others as they brought their birds to a stop and circled back.

"Helicopters," he hissed, and leapt out into a full run past the others. Both Squall and Zell understood the danger immediately and turned their chocobos back to the south and urged them on into full gallops as well.

"How much longer will these things last?" Quistis yelled to Zell as he rode his bird hard.

"Not sure," he replied. "At full speed . . . ." he shook his head. "We have to get as far south as we can before the helicopters catch us!"

"There's a big open plain past this valley!" Squall shouted, pulling a little closer. "If my geography's right, the grasses are tall enough to hide in!"

"We're still not going to lose 'em," Zell replied. "Once they spot us they'll have an army all over that plain trying to find us." Squall frowned, and looked back, thinking of a plan, some advantage they could gain. Their chocobos were still strong, but how much longer would they last? They were fast, but they couldn't outrun helicopters.

As if to punctuate his thoughts, Squall spotted a pair of distant black specks appear over the mountain and swoop in their direction, growing larger every minute.

"Helicopters!" he warned his comrades, and both he and Zell spurred their chocobos on even harder. Still, the helicopters closed in with frightening speed, apparently spotting the pair of chocobos at long range. They made an unswerving line directly for the group as they dashed across the valley. The mountains began to give way around the group, but nonetheless, the two helicopters continued to close in. As the minutes passed, Squall could hear the _thwip-thwip-thwip_ of the aircrafts' rotors beating against the air as they got closer and closer. Squall looked back over his shoulder and could make out the shape of the vehicles as they closed in. And to the north, moving through the valley, was a column of motorcycles and armed jeeps, rolling over the plains in pursuit.

Squall cursed, roving through his mind for plans or methods to evade this overwhelming enemy that was doggedly chasing them. No immediate ideas appeared in his mind. There was no cover nearby, nothing except grasses on a wide, open plain. There was a large-scale chocobo ranch to the south, far away, but they couldn't hope to get there in time, and there was no other cover for miles beyond that point, making it a futile gesture to hide there. The only other direction they could go was to the southwest, but Squall quickly remembered a very good reason why they couldn't go in that direction. The Midgar Swamps were in that region.

The two helos were closing in, approaching near enough that Squall could tell they were light troop transport helicopters. He make out the machineguns poking out of their sides, manned by Shinra soldiers, and could almost see the pilots behind the plexiglass cockpits.

"What do we do, Squall?" Zell asked quickly as the helos grew larger and larger, the beating of the rotors almost deafening. A booming voice sounded over the thunderous rotors.

"_Surrender now!"_ came the voice of one of pilots, broadcasted over a loudspeaker. _"We have control of the situation! Stop your animals now or we will be forced to open fire!"_ Zell gave the Shinra pilots a one-fingered response in defiance, but he knew it was a futile gesture.

Squall looked back to the helicopters, thinking of a means of attack. Maybe he could use magic against them. It had worked before in Sector Five . . . .

"Don't worry, Squall," Rinoa suddenly murmured, almost too quietly for him to hear. He looked to her, to see her head bowed. He couldn't see her face, but if he could, he would have seen that her eyes were closed in concentration. "I'll take care of this."

"What?" Squall stated at her sudden assurance, and was confused by both it and her confidence. She turned her head back toward him, opening her eyes momentarily, and smiled.

"The open land," she stated quietly. "I can hear it speak to me. And I can talk to it."

"What are you talking about?" Squall asked, wanting clarification, but then words became meaningless as Rinoa raised a hand, letting out a cry as she looked into the blue afternoon sky. As if in response, the wind suddenly began to wail around them and around her, gathering and blowing, a hoarse rumble of storm-like gales in the sky above. Rinoa clenched her fist, and turned, opening it in the direction of the helicopters. The pilots began to swerve, anticipating blasts of magic.

They weren't disappointed, but the source of the magic, and the direction it came from were not what they had expected. Wind hammered the helicopters with sudden, brutal and overwhelming force, striking them as hard as if a stone wall had been erected in front of them. As Squall watched, the roaring winds seemed to simply shear off the rotors from one helicopter, and at the same time shattered the cockpit windows, launching hundreds of shards of glass into the interior of the vehicle, shredding the pilot, copilot, and soldiers on board. The helicopter flipped, end over end, and smashed into the open plain, rolling along on sheer momentum as it bounced over the ground.

The second helicopter was spun around as the winds smashed its tail, ripping the rear of the helicopter completely off. The aircraft spun around wildly as the winds pummeled it, crushing the metal frame and hurling soldiers and crew from the vehicle. Within moments it, too, met a similar fate as its comrade, crashing and rolling along the open plain, a crushed and broken thing.

Rinoa closed her hand and opened her eyes, letting out a breath she apparently hadn't realized she was holding. She looked to Squall, who regarded her with amazement, and then to Quistis and Zell, who had similar expressions. Silence filled the plains, excepting the bounding of the chocobos and Red's near-ghostlike run, until Zell finally spoke.

"Can you show me how to do that?"

---------------------------

The group had stopped for a short while, letting the chocobos get a reasonable rest as they weighed their options.

"We can cut through the mountains," Zell explained, pointing out a spot on their map. "Go straight over them and out the other side, and get on the western end of the continent."

"That'll be slow going," Quistis replied, shaking her head. "Not very many mountain passes, and Shinra's likely going to be covering all of them. If they catch us with helicopters again, we'll be stuck."

"There are fishing villages," Zell continued, running a finger along the wide coast edging the plains. "We can grab a boat from one of them." Squall shook his head as he chewed on a bite of protein rope. Rinoa nodded in agreement.

"We don't have much time before Shinra's army catches up with us," she explained. "They'll catch us before we get halfway across the plains."

"The boats are no good," Red said in agreement. "We cannot cross the mountains, and we cannot use the ocean. Perhaps we go beneath the mountains? I know that there are mythril mines running below these ranges."

"Most of 'em are closed," Zell said, frowning. "Not to mention the tunnels won't reach far enough to get to the other side of the mountains. The only exception is . . . ." He traced a finger west of their current direction across a grayed-out region of the map, and toward a red dot. "There. That mine runs all the way to the other side of the mountains."

"That crosses the swamps," Squall replied, and the others looked up at him. He shook his head. "Those swamps are very dangerous."

"Why?" Zell asked.

"Zoloms," the former SeeD replied. Zell paled.

"You serious?" he hissed. Squall nodded grimly.

"What are zoloms?" Quistis asked.

"Big-ass snakes," Zell replied. "About fifty feet long, tough as hell. And, if the stories are right, they can breath fire or use magic or something. Not very many people have met 'em and survived." He frowned. "I didn't think that there were any in the swamps, though."

"Well, there are," Squall replied. He shook his head after a moment. "But we'll have to deal with it. I'd rather risk running from a zolom rather than take on the Shinra military head-on."

"Let's saddle up and move out," Zell added, and the others quickly moved back to their chocobos. Within moments they were sitting securely and had their gear squared away, Zell pausing only to take an unhappy bite from the protein rope.

"Hyne, this tastes like crap," he muttered.

"Get used to it," Quistis replied as he snapped the reins and hit the chocobo's ribs. "It's all we'll be eating for a while." Squall's chocobo moved ahead as Red moved out to the perimeter, keeping his eye open and ears primed.

Within the hour, they had passed from the green, grassy plains, and headed into the darkening gloom of a gray, empty, wet wasteland. The Midgar Swamps stretched out before them as their chocobos splashed across the shallows, into one of the more perilous regions of this continent.

----------------------------

"Shit." He looked down from his high vantage point with the long-range binoculars, and shook his head. "They're going into the swamps. Fuck."

He had seen the whole incident in the valley from up here as he had moved up the mountains. It was really the only way he could dodge Shinra after that stunt he'd pulled outside Midgar. He hadn't seen what happened in Kalm, but he could guess what had passed in the village. It was hard to tell what had happened to the helicopters pursuing the group, but he knew something weird was going on.

He could see them in the distance, traveling into the swamps, and shook his head again. Nothing he could do for them here. It would be better if he could get across the mountains as fast as he could; Shinra would be up here soon enough, he guessed.

"Hyne, you better have something up your sleeve for them," he growled as he trudged up the mountain path. Still, he knew that if anyone could get through the swamps, it was that group. And with a little help from him, who knew how far they could get?

"You're still not paying me enough," he complained to his distant employers as he continued up the mountain.

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I apologize for the delay. A combination of both the awesomeness of the last few chapters of Gunblade and writer's block when it came to the battle in Kalm killed my ability to write this chapter for a while.

I'm surprised this chapter turned out this long. I was originally planning to have some minor conflict in Kalm, where the heroes had to run off and then run from Shinra, but it grew into this monster. I honsstly didn't feel like I could just let the heroes walk away from Kalm without a nicerousing battle.Was quite enjoyable to write however, including the bits with the chocobos, and Squall and Tseng's brief duel. I plan to let them have a much longer one later on.

The Squall and Tseng duel was heavily inspired by samurai fighting styles. If you've seen The Last Samurai, then that movie was what partially inspired the battle there. A very quick, intense conflict with lots of deflection parries and such, not to mention the samurai-style charge at the beginning.

And now, the long-delayed shout-outs!

-Angel-brokensorrow: You still out there? XD Sorry about the subtle clues in the previous chapter. They slightly line up with FFVII's subtle clues in the same sequence, I'll admit that.

-Daniel Wesley Rydell: Squall's flashback is actually one year previously, not five or ten. In FFVII it was five years, though.

-Cloud Strife 2004: Who knows who will replace whom? XD I've got plenty of ideas here.

-Ilopan: Oh, the story won't be a Quall, I can guarantee that. Well, maybe slightly, but it will for the most part be a Squinoa. Their relationship will be very important throughout the storyline, too.

-Akira Stridder: No, Squall lived in Midgar for most of his life. _Most_ of it. I won't tell where else until I'm good and ready.

-JamieLike: hey, its my goal to make Squall seem like he's home here in FFVII. And yeah, I wanted Sephiroth to be a psycho. Because that's what he is, darn it! No innocence or redemption for him!

I ran into a problem early on, thinking about how to have X-ATM092 in both the reactor and the streets of Midgar during the escape, but I finally shrugged and went ahead and did it anyway. And getting dropped into the sewer, yeah, I hated that segment, so I had Squall drop the Don instead. Hee.

Seifer will come. Who will he be? Hm. You'll see. Or maybe not immediately. Oh, I love being vague.

The Corel/Dyne bit will definitely be a challenge for me. I've got some ideas, though. That's one bit I haven't fleshed out completely yet.

I actually looked back, and there was some alternating between Skotch and Kotch (who are two separate characters) Thanks for letting me know, I totally missed that, especially considering Kotch gets killed so quickly in the battle. XD

SSJ4-Bejita: I will admit, Synthesis has fallen by the wayside in the wake of Gunblade. Of course, to make up for that I spent all my time from the last chapter of Gunblade on working on this. These next couple of chapters may be a bit more difficult, but once we hit Fort Condor and Junon it'll probably speed up.

Who knows who the mysterious sniper may be? Is that a weathered trenchcoat I see on that mountain?

That all? Good. Well, keep reading, my faithful fan peoples, and work diligently. Spell-check and quick-edit are your friends! Until next chapter . . . .


	13. Demons of Earth and Mind

_Chapter 12: Demons of Earth and Mind_

The waters splashed under their chocobos' feet as the group moved deeper into the Midgar Swamps. Red stepped lightly, often pausing to leap up into the small twisted, leafless trees that grew in this area. His eyes sought out any threats on the horizon, but failed to see anything. Nonetheless, he kept up a brisk pace, and the others' matched him with their chocobos, slowing only to navigate around wide bogs or areas of thick undergrowth. The land was muddy and damp, and pools of water rose up constantly, often forming shallow lakes that at times rose up almost to the chocobos' thighs. There was the occasional call from a swamp bird in the distance, but with that exception, nothing seemed to be alive in this wasteland.

"Wonderful place," Zell commented as they rode along. "I can see bringing my grandkids here for fun and vacation in about forty years."

"If Shinra were to raze this whole swamp it would be an improvement," Squall muttered in agreement. "Keep your eyes open. Those Zoloms could be anywhere."

"Well, we do have Red watching out for us," Quistis added.

"I only have one pair of eyes," Red called back as he traversed a tree, scanning the horizon. He dropped back down and moved off into the swamp silently, the chocobos right behind him.

The mountains ahead steadily grew, and Zell finally spoke again.

"Hey, I'm wondering if we're going to get out of this without having t even see one of those things. We're about halfway across the swamp, aren't we? Maybe we won't-"

"Silence!" Red hissed, watching the horizon. The others froze, stopping the chocobos where they stood. The birds warbled slightly, in fear and anxiety, their feet clawing the muddy ground slightly. Red stared out into the distance, and then, a moment, later, looked to the others, his good eye wide open.

"Go now! Run!" he ordered, and bounded away. Squall and Zell wasted no time kicking their chocobos into an all-out dash, following Red's trail as he cut across the swamp.

"You and your big mouth," Quistis commented to Zell, who shrugged a she urged his bird on faster.

"How far are they?" Squall asked. Red glanced to his left, and looked back for an instant.

"Close! Ride! Hurry!" the beast replied, almost afraid. Squall looked in the direction that Red had glanced, and saw a single hump on the horizon, steadily getting larger as it moved over the muddy ground and through the shallow waters, a hump with white eyes on the front and a mouth that was opening, readying to partake in the kill.

"They're coming!" Squall warned, and leveled a hand at the zolom. A bolt of lightning ripped out as the creature neared, impacting it between its eyes.

Squall then almost wished he hadn't bothered.

The zolom let out a tremendous roar that momentarily deafened the group and sent the chocobos squealing in pain, and sent ripples through the water. It then reared back, rising up, then towering over the quartet of humans and their mounts.

The zolom looked like nothing more than a giant black cobra, as tall as a two-story building and seeming to be just as heavy and durable. It thundered a second cry and smashed back down into the dirt, sliding forward, now with fury and hatred in its eyes, and went straight for Squall's chocobo.

"Not good," he hissed to Rinoa, and urged his bird on faster as the zolom closed in.

"Hey, ugly!" shouted Zell suddenly, edging his bird closer to the zolom. It seemed to ignore him, until he launched a lightning bolt at the creature, which resulted in another enraged roar. It shifted toward Zell and Quistis, and it began to close in, when Quistis snapped her rante at it, the long chain sending the blade into the beast's face as it neared. The zolom cried out again in pain and momentarily veered off, passing in front of Zell's bird. The brawler slowed it to avoid a crash, when the zolom rapidly turned, literally snaking its body around the chocobo and its two riders. The massive snake opened its mouth and breathed flames down on the pair and their mount.

Zell let out a shocked cry as fire poured out of the Zolom's mouth, and sidestepped his bird, the chocobo, leaping out of the path of the flames. Steam erupted from the waters as the inferno threatened to engulf the group, and Quistis cried out in pain as the fires licked her arm, burning it. Zell shouted in anger and kicked the bird forward, driving it toward the body of the Zolom ahead of them. The chocobo, well-trained and instinctively understanding what it needed to do, leapt into the air, directly over the Zolom's body, splashing down on the opposite side of the snake's tail. Zell urged the mount onward. Behind them, the Zolom growled in frustration and moved to pursue immediately, slithering across the marshes.

Quistis, meanwhile, clutched her arm, closing her eyes and wincing at the burning pain. However, her expression swiftly shifted to thoughtful.

"Quistis?" Zell asked. "No time for a nap!" She responded by opening her eyes and turning back toward the oncoming Zolom, pointing a hand toward it as if casting a spell.

"Try some of it yourself!" she shouted, and instantly, flames burst from her hand and shot toward the Zolom, exactly like its own fires had erupted an instant before. The Zolom reared back, roaring in pain and confusion as Quistis' fires seared its flesh. It turned suddenly and pulled away, slithering across the marshes away from the intruders.

"Okay, first Rinoa, and now you," Zell commented, looking at Quistis. "What's going on here?"

"Explanation later," Squall responded, slowing his chocobo down so that they were riding parallel. "Escaping now!"

"There are more coming!" Red added loudly, somewhere ahead of them. "At least one more ahead of us! We must hurry!"

Zell and Squall urged their chocobos on in full flight, and the mounts, apparently understanding the threat of the Zoloms, pushed themselves hard, charging across the marshes. Red stayed ahead of them, continuously spotting for them whenever he found a tree high enough to use. At one point, as they drew closer and closer to the mountains, Red called back a warning.

"The Zolom is nearing! We must turn aside!" Squall nodded and began to turn his bird when Red made another exclamation, this one of surprise. Ahead, they saw the Zolom suddenly rise, roaring in fury, and then jerk, before flopping down with a resounding crash into the muddy waters. Red scanned the horizon, and spotted more Zoloms, but these were hesitant, and a few turned away, which he reported to his comrades.

A few minutes later, Squall and Zell moved their chocobos toward the fallen Zolom, alert for any attack. None came, and they were rather surprised as they neared the creature, to see three holes grouped around its head.

"Bullet wounds," Squall commented, hopping off his chocobo and slashing through the waters. "High caliber, too. These look like . . . Sniper fire?"

"Someone sniped the Zolom?" Rinoa asked, and Squall nodded. He looked up, toward the mountains, and thought back to the Shinra building. Someone was seriously looking out for them.

"Like we have our own guardian angels or something," Quistis commented.

"Hey, if this sniper guy picks off the Shinra, and puts a few into this Sephiroth guy, I'd be pretty happy," Zell added as Squall mounted his bird once more.

"The other Zoloms are keeping their distance," Red reported. "I do not think they will be coming close anytime soon."

"Let's ride before they get their courage back," Rinoa advised, and the others agreed. Within seconds they were riding hard across the marshes once again, and no giant fire-breathing snakes emerged to threaten them.

They soon enough exited the marshes, but Squall found dread entering his heart as they did so. Shortly before leaving the marshes Red had discovered a wide area of the shallows tinged crimson. A single lap of the water with his tongue had told Red XIII all that they needed to know.

"Blood," the hunter had hissed.

The bloody water continued on for a while, right up until they left the marshes, and the trail continued, a virtual path paved in the red substance, weaving between and over rocks and jagged stones in their path. Soon enough, the quintet and their chocobos rounded a bend in the trail, heading up into a mountain pass, and they saw it.

A tall tree had all of its branches sheared off. The top of the tree was also missing, instead whittled down into a massive spike. Impaled on this spike, tip driven through the head, was a Zolom. Blood poured down from the dead creature's body and pooled around the tree, and there was little doubt that the trail of blood from here back had come from several lethal slashes across the creature's carcass.

"Okay," Zell stated clearly. "I am now officially freaked out."

"Sephiroth did this?" Rinoa asked, and Squall nodded grimly.

"Left us a calling card," the former SeeD growled.

"So, this is what he can do?" Quistis mused, amazed. "I knew he was powerful, but Hyne . . . ."

"Let's go," Squall said coldly, and kicked his chocobo forward, the bird moving out into the mountain pass. They trudged along the rocky trail as the mountains grew closer and closer, and soon approached an old mining town, long since abandoned. Rail lines ran toward a cavern nestled between the mountains. Squall led them up to the entrance, and dismounted.

"We can't bring the birds inside," he commented, and Zell and the others nodded, following suit. "You have a map of this place?"

"Won't need one," Zell replied. "There's a lot of branching tunnels, but the other end is a straight shot from here, more or less."

"I can also assist you in moving through the tunnels," Red added. "My clan lived in an area honeycombed with tunnels and catacombs. We learned quickly how to find our way through them."

"Well, that makes our job that much easier," Zell added. "Now, we have to send the birds home."

"We just going to let them run across that swamp?" Rinoa asked, and Zell shook his head.

"We just tell them to go home," Zell explained. "Trust me, chocobos are twice as fast without a rider, and can even climb up and down mountain faces as long as they don't have heavy weights on their backs. They're a lot more agile than they seem. They'll be fine." Zell led the pair of birds away from the entrance to the mine, and whispered something in their ears. The riding birds warbled something cheery in response, and Zell clapped his hands. Instantly, the pair of birds took off, dashing up a nearby mountain face with astonishing agility, vanishing within moments.

"Let's go," Squall said once more after a few moments, and the quintet turned toward the gaping entrance to the mine and strode forward, delving into the bowels of the earth.

"Lovely," Quistis commented as they stepped into the shadows and darkness, delving into the depths of the mountain. Harsh red light flared in the darkness as Zell lit a flare, holding the torch out in front of him. Red moved ahead, forging a path into the mines. The others followed, Squall's blue eyes piercing the darkness with their luminous blue glow.

They walked the tunnels for what felt like hours, Red and Zell never wavering as they led the others along the path. They passed numerous side tunnels, but neither of the guides broke off to explore them, instead steadily advancing through the mines. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of walking along the confining corridors, the group suddenly broke free of the narrow tunnels, entering a wide, open chamber with a cool green light emanating from fissures in the ground. They all stepped out, happy to be free of the narrow confines, and spread out across the room, searching for threats. None presented itself, and the quintet relaxed as they explored the chamber.

Squall scanned the chamber, glowing with its own strange inner light. It was wide open, and the walls glittered with dozens of threads of silver metal. Piles of discarded rock and stone, along with old tools and mine carts, were scattered about the room. In the pale light, the room seemed strangely eerie as the quintet moved across it, Zell's flare casting crimson illumination all across the room.

"Main mining room," Squall commented. "Looks like they just dropped everything and ran." None of the others spoke as they fanned out across the chamber.

"What is this?" Quistis asked as she paused near one of the mine carts, sitting next to a wall. She looked into the cart and frowned, and lifted what looked like a silvery shard of raw metal from within the cart. Zell's eyes widened as he saw the metal, and he rushed over to her.

"If that's what I think it is . . . ." he said with a grin, and looked into the cart. The brawler laughed out loud.

"What is it?" she asked again, and Zell lifted another chunk of raw metal. He tossed it casually into the air, and then caught and balanced the metal on a finger.

"Quistis, this is nothing more than exceptionally valuable mythril ore!" Zell responded, and her eyes widened in response to his statement.

"It is a mythril mine," Red added with a rough approximation of a shrug. "Unsurprising that there are still veins of it present."

"Mythril," Quistis said, looking at the ore as if it were more valuable than gold, which it really was. The metal was light and durable, and had a high melting point. It was great as a conductor, and many weapons were made out of the material. The metal was stronger than reinforced steel, and could withstand tremendous abuse. Squall nodded as he hefted one of the shards of ore himself.

"Tseng's sword was made out of this," he commented, and looked down at the Revolver, which was forged only out of steel and not mythril. "A katana can't block such a heavy weapon as mine without being made of mythril."

"This stuff is more valuable than gold," Zell continued, and he wasted no time packing the chunks of ore into his vest pockets. "If we make it to Junon we can sell this ore on the black market for thousands each. We'll be set for cash!" Squall nodded, and he took the pack off his back and opened it up. Quistis and Rinoa followed suit, though Quistis was a bit slower with removing her backpack. She paused for a moment and let out a profound yawn as she did so. Red, meanwhile, prowled around the chamber, and found several other mine carts laden with the ore. He was a bit confused by all this mythril laying around, and no one having taken it with them when the mine had been shut down.

He didn't realize what the problem was until he found a dozen old, bleached skeletons in the corner. They were clad like miners, but their bones were damaged and beaten, with what looked like burn marks on their bodies.

"Be alert!" he called in warning to his comrades, who paused in their gathering of the abandoned mythril. Squall turned around, and paused as he felt a wave of drowsiness wash over him. He shook his head, and then heard Zell yawning behind him.

"Hey, what's goin' on?" he asked after a moment, and Squall turned, to see Zell leaning against the stone wall with one arm, eyelids drooping.

"I'm not sure," Squall answered, fighting to keep his own eyes open.

"Squall, I don't know . . . What . . . ." Quistis was saying as she put a hand to her head, and suddenly stumbled forward, dropping onto her knees. Rinoa dropped beside her, trying to help Quistis stand, but the woman seemed to nod off in her hands. Zell settled down to the floor on his rump, eyelids almost closed. He managed to open them one more time and tried to stand, before falling back into slumber.

"What's going on?" Squall asked, his voice slurred by drowsiness. Rinoa looked up to him as she set Quistis down, and rushed to his side, catching Squall as he feel forward, his knees buckling and pack falling to the dust. She guided him to the ground as darkness overcame his vision.

"Be on alert," Red advised them again as he backed away from the skeletons, and then tuned his eyes toward his collapsed comrades. The one good eye opened wide. "What has happened?" he asked, bounding over to Rinoa. She shook her head, and closed her eyes, reaching out and touching Squall's forehead.

"I sense some aura of magic," she whispered. "Not sleeping magic. Something else. I'm not sure what it is . . . ." As she trailed off, Red's ears perked up, and he turned around, dropping low to the ground with muscles tensed. Rinoa, too, looked up, her Cetra senses telling her something was approaching.

"Do you hear it?" Red asked, and Rinoa shook her head.

"I don't hear it, but I can feel it getting closer. Coming from one of the mine shafts. Its getting closer." Rinoa quickly drew and extended her staff, setting her feet as she and Red looked back toward the tunnel they had come from. She spared a glance back to her unconscious comrades, and knew that whatever was coming they would have to stand and fight against. They couldn't carry, nor leave, their friends behind.

"Come on then," Red XIII hissed toward the darkness. "Bring yourself forward!"

* * *

_Squall's feet were moving, although not of his own will. His gloved hands, not leather gloves but cloth, were wrapped tightly around the handle and muzzle of a heavy machinegun. He keenly felt the weight of metal armor, ammunition, grenades, and a pack full of supplies on his back, although he never recalled donning any of them. Sweat, from the heat and from his own sore muscles, poured down his brow, although he hadn't exerted himself enough to have those sore muscles. He reached up with his left hand and brushed hair out of his eyes, and though the action would have been automatic in normal situations, Squall Leonhart was instantly aware of the fact that he had not been the one to make his hand reach up to brush that hair away. _

That hair, Squall suddenly noted. That hair was not brown.

It was black.

Squall suddenly stopped without wanting to stop, and looked around, raising his rifle and scanning the area. He was in a stone valley, a wide and barren one, filled with gray rocks and boulders. Distant sounds of explosions and gunfire could be heard, mingled with the shouts of orders and the screams of death; a war was raging in the distance.

"_Not again," muttered a voice behind Squall, and he turned around without willing himself to do so, to face a slender soldier clad in the armor of a Shinra regular. Unlike most other soldiers, he wore no faceplate, and his armor itself was a darker shade of blue, his role as a member of Shinra's special forces. A standard-issue assault rifle was slung over his shoulder, and a he carried a pair of short punching daggers, known as katars. His skin was dark, and his black hair was worn long, strands of it braided together.  
_

"_Hey, Laguna?" asked another voice, and Squall turned again, to see a massive soldier that dwarfed him, clad in custom-made heavy armor of the same shade as the previous soldier's. He carried a heavier, belt-fed machinegun on his back, but in his hands was a heavy iron spear with a round ring on the blunt end. He, too, lacked a faceplate, and had pale skin with a scruffy beard growing on his face, and a wicked scar running across his lips and down his jaw._

"_We're lost again, aren't we?" asked the big man in a booming tone._

"_Nah, don't worry, Ward," Squall said, his voice coming out with a deeper pitch than it should have. "I know precisely where we're going."_

"_He's lost," came the other soldier, chuckling._

"_Not you too, Kiros," 'Laguna' said, shaking his head as if betrayed. "Anyway, the valley looks safe." Laguna turned and waved behind him, and, from a thick boulder tumble a couple hundred feet behind the trio, a force of about two hundred Shinra soldiers emerged from hiding and moved forward._

"_We didn't fully check it,' Ward muttered, and then shrugged. "But intel says that this place should be secure. If it is the right valley."_

"_It should be," Laguna replied. "I mean, the main lines aren't that far away, and this was a straight shot from the base camp. Through this valley, out the other side, and around that mountain face, and we'll be right in position to hit those samurai in the back. We pin them down until the main force finishes the defenders in the south pass and comes up and hits the fort from in front."_

"_What are we waiting for?" Kiros asked as the Shinra forces they were scouting for neared. "Colonel Heidegger needs us to flank the Wutai troops dug in inside their little fort beyond the mountain before they escape, and I doubt Lord Godo's men will be waiting around for long before pulling out."_

"_Yeah, let's stop wasting time," Ward added. He grinned. "That is, if we aren't lost again."_

"_We're not lost!" Laguna replied immediately, a bit miffed. "I know exactly where we're going. Its not gonna to be like when we were hunting those ninja two weeks ago! Let's get going!" He waved to the rest of the Shinra force, and gestured for them to advance. Laguna, Kiros, and Ward, at the head of the column, advanced through the boulder strewn valley, weapons up and ready. They suspected that Wutai's troops would be somewhere around, and Laguna figured Godo at least had a few scouts to keep an eye on this valley. Still, the majority of the Wutai samurai were engaged with the main Shinra army in the pass southwest of their position; Shinra Intelligence and Colonel Heidegger had doubted that the Wutai army in this area had many men to secure the surrounding valleys._

_That supposition, delivered with confidence by the fat, bearded Heidegger, went out the window the second one of the Shinra troopers shouted "Incoming!"_

_All eyes went up and around, and the Shinra forces instantly became aware of over a hundred white-feathered arrows streaking through the air, arcing up and diving down at their column._

"_Cover!" Laguna ordered, and the Shinra forces dove behind rocks and boulders, raising their rifles defensively over their faces to block the arrow barrage._

"_Indirect fire," Kiros commented as the arrows began to rain down upon the Shinra force. "They've got to be out of sight, but someone's watching us!" White-feathered shafts struck around the Shinra force, and several soldiers screamed out cries of pain as the arrows stuck through creases in their body armor, striking legs, elbows, and necks. Squad leaders issued shouts to their men, and soldiers swept their weapons outward, looking for the unseen archers._

_Any orders anyone shouted were instantly drowned out as battle cries sounded around the Shinra force. Instantly, over three hundred men, clad in leather armor backed by steel bands, and wearing flaring helmets, some with frightening metal masks on the front, emerged from behind boulders all around the Shinra troops. Colorful banners waved from flags mounted to many of their backs, emblazoned with the rising sun sigil of Wutai. Katana, glaives, and other Wutai weapons were held in their hands, and they instantly rushed forward, dashing across the distances between their hiding places and the Shinra column._

"_Fire, fire!" Laguna and a dozen other officers, commissioned and non, shouted, and the Shinra troops raised their rifles. Two hundred soldiers opened fire, rifles belching streams of hot metal at the Wutai samurai. However, the samurai were already close, almost within arms' reach even as the Shinra troops had been coming about to fire. Scores of samurai fell in the first few moments, however, cut down in Shinra gunfire in the seconds that the soldiers had to fire, but then the samurai were upon the column. Katana flashed, glaives dove in, and Shinra soldiers screamed and died as the enemy tore into them._

* * *

Human eyes would not have perceived its advent, but neither Rinoa nor Red XIII were humans. Red's eyes pierced the darkness, sensing the shadow's approach, and Rinoa's innate sense told her precisely when it exited the dark tunnels and floated into the mining chamber. The creature took on the form of an immense shadow at first, a spreading darkness that quickly took on a coherent form. Both Red and Rinoa watched as the entity quickly reshaped itself, transforming into a demonic, humanoid shape fifteen feet tall, with black wings extending across the chamber. A long, whiplike tail flew out behind it as its yellow eyes, glowing in the dim green light of the chamber, fixed on the pair.

"A Guardian," Rinoa said quietly, and Red looked to her. "An elemental spirit. It must have taken residence in the mines . . . ."

"_I am Diablos. You violate my sanctuary," _it whispered, its voice sound like an avalanche. The creature's mouth, however, did not move, and only its eyes seemed to flicker as it spoke. _"My rest was disturbed before, and I have dealt with the interlopers. Why do you disturb me now?"_

"We are merely passing through," Red XIII replied, but the Guardian roared something and gestured at Red. A ball of shadow lanced out at the beast, who darted aside in the blink of an eye. Diablos was apparently not a very welcoming creature, but neither Red nor Rinoa appreciated being attacked without warning.

Rinoa raised her staff, and pointed one end at Diablos, channeling magical power through her Materia. Her wrist flared a bright green as Red dashed across the chamber at Diablos, leaping into the air in an eye blink and latching onto the Guardian's throat. The shadowy devil let out a surprised roar of pain as Red's fangs tore into its throat, shadowy mist flowing from its flesh and around Red's fangs as he dug in. Diablos reached up to grab Red with its claws, when a shard of ice imbedded itself in its face, just above Red's position. The creature dropped off Diablos' throat, teeth tearing a chunk of flesh with it, and the icicle exploded into a thousand shards of ice and expanding frost. Diablos' cry of pain shuddered the mining chamber.

Even as it was roaring in suffering, h however, Diablos shot forward, wings propelling it across the chamber as it raised its claws, swiping at Rinoa. She saw the attack coming and hurled herself back, dropping on her rear and almost laying herself out flat on the ground to evade the sweeping claws. Red took the opportunity to leap atop Diablos again, landing on its left shoulder and digging his teeth in anew, biting and clawing viciously. Diablos growled in pain again, and its right arm shot across in an attempt to seize the beast, who quickly leapt off the Guardian's arm and onto its face. Diablos' shuddering cry was redoubled as Red's razor fangs and tearing claws ripped into the Guardian's face and eyes. A bolt of lightning that would have broken a Shinra war machine thundered into Diablos' chest, courtesy of Rinoa, pushing the guardian back.

Diablos spun around quickly, lashing out with its tail at Rinoa, who took the hit across her torso and was launched back across the room to crash heavily into a mining cart, where she slumped for a moment, blacking out.

Diablos raised it hands and clasped them around Red, tearing him free of its face. The beast snarled and lashed out, biting the Guardian's hands and clawing its fingers, but the demon shook off the damage, gritting its teeth. Darkness flowed down its arms and swept into Red as he fought, the powers of shadow and death biting into him. Red let out a cry of agony as his very life-force was being assaulted by Diablos' magic.

* * *

_A katana that would have cloven Laguna in two slashed down hard at him, but he quickly raised his rifle, the butt intercepting the sharp blade and stopping it in the space between the samurai and the soldier. Laguna twisted his weapon, pushing the katana out wide and to the side before the Wutai samurai could retract the weapon, and the motion gave him an opening. He shot his weapon forward, smashing the butt into the samurai's open-faced helmet, and crushed the man's nose. The Wutai warrior fell back, and Laguna flipped the rifle over, leveling the barrel at the stunned samurai's face. A double-tap of the rifle's trigger put three rounds in the man's face and sent him down hard to the dirt._

_Beside him, Kiros proved much more adept at melee combat. His twin katars danced in the air before him, clashing against the katana of two other samurai as they came in at him. Their curving cuts were stopped and thrown out wide in a spiraling swirl of swordsmanship, and one of the samurai found the dagger he was battling jabbing into his throat as he recovered. The other samurai was able to quickly back away and come forward with a jab, stabbing the blade at Kiros' face. Kiros snapped his blade around, knocking that katana aside, and brought his other, bloodied punching dagger forward, slashing it across into the samurai's helmet. The dagger slashed through the metal helm and into the samurai's head._

_Ward exercised neither Laguna's firearm arts nor Kiros' speed and subtlety, instead simply using his harpoon and sheer bulk to crush a samurai under over a hundred pounds of unyielding iron harpoon. The ring smashed down into the nearest Wutai soldier, crushing him to the dirt, and he spun, smashing the weapon across and using the ring to launch another across the battlefield. Ward then whirled, setting the harpoon against the furious, screaming charge of a third samurai, who impale himself on the spear's sharpened tip without warning. Ward shook the dead man off and spun toward his next foe._

_The samurai swirled around the Shinra column, many of the armored warriors amidst the blue-clad soldiers, and Shinra troops were dropping fast. In close quarters they were decent fighters, but they were outnumbered by men who were far greater warriors in melee than themselves. The only ones who were holding out by themselves were Laguna and his two friends, who stacked up dead samurai all around them._

_Laguna emptied his magazine at a pair of samurai, chopping both men down in a hail of gunfire, and then grabbed at his belt. he pulled a high-explosive grenade free and popped the pin, before lobbing it into a cluster of samurai bearing down on a badly embattled segment of the Shinra column. The grenade landed in the samurai's midst, and detonated, hurling men, body parts, and colored flags into the air. The Shinra soldier then grunted, a sharp sting in his shoulder, and looked across to see a white-feathered arrow quivering in his arm. He grunted and quickly reached up, pulling the arrow free, surprised that it didn't hurt as badly as he thought it would. Another samurai rushed at him, and Laguna dropped the useless rifle, instead reaching down and grasping one of the fallen warrior's katana. The samurai who was advancing saw this, and let out a cry of outrage, dashing across at Laguna. Laguna watched him advance, holding the blade close to his side, and waited for the samurai to near. The Wutai warrior drew close, raising his sword, eyes full of hatred, and he cleaved across with the slender weapon. Laguna saw the attack coming, angled for his head, and ducked down low, stepping to the right as he did so, and slashed across, angling the tip of the katana up into his foe's chest. The blade dug into the samurai's torso, tearing his lungs, and the man stumbled forward before dropping to the ground, tearing the stolen blade from Laguna's hands._

_Laguna didn't bother going for his stolen blade, and instead grabbed his rifle again. There were no samurai within close range, so he had an instant to reload. He tore a magazine from his belt and rammed it into the rifle, and drew back the bolt, in time to spot a trio of samurai advancing, screaming challenges to the Shinra soldier. Laguna raised his rifle and poured fire on them. _

_Kiros was doing well, and a half-dozen samurai were dead before him, when he found himself standing beside Ward. A quartet of samurai assaulted them from four separate directions, and without a word, the two veterans moved back to back, facing off against two Wutai warriors each. Ward lashed out across with his harpoon, knocking the katana from a samurai's hands with almost casual ease, which surprised even him. The other samurai dove in, slashing hard at Ward's gut, but he stepped back and spun, jabbing his harpoon over his shoulder at one of the samurai Kiros was engaging. Kiros, likewise, had dispatched one of his foes with a quick deflection and stab to the gut, and whirled on the samurai cutting at Ward, both katars slashing up through his belly and out his chest. Ward's harpoon crunched into the helmet of the last armed samurai, tearing his head off his shoulders. The fourth, disarmed samurai, took a step back, and quickly drew a second blade off his belt, another katana. Kiros and Ward turned toward him, but then froze._

_Behind that warrior were four dozen lightly armored samurai, carrying heavy bows with arrows notched and ready to fire._

_Laguna rolled around the last samurai he was firing on as the man came in, and planted a boot to his back, knocking him off his feet. The samurai dropped to his knees, and Laguna wasted no time bringing the butt of his rifle into the back of the man's head. The soldier was expecting his rifle butt would stun the samurai, but not hurt him through his helmet, but was surprised when the helm deformed under the impact, and the samurai fell down, knocked unconscious by the hit. Laguna blinked for a moment, shocked at the power behind his hit, and then turned around, seeking another opponent._

_He found plenty._

_On all sides, ringing the Shinra soldier, were dozens of samurai, some wounded, and others wielding longbows, obviously the archers that had been firing at the beginning of the engagement. At the samurai's feet lay the entirety of the Shinra column, slaughtered in the brutal close-quarters battle, having fought to the last man. Laguna turned, and saw Kiros and Ward backing away from a phalanx of archers, arrows ready to fire, their weapons raised, but expressions telling him that they were aware of the hopeless odds._

"_Well, c'mon," Laguna said, shouldering his rifle. In response, the samurai around him tensed up, and the archers drew their arrows back a bit further. Kiros and Ward raised their weapons as well. _

"_Let's boogie!" Ward roared._

* * *

Red writhed in Diablos' grasp, his life being drained away from the Guardian's magic, and he let out another pained roar while in its grip. That roar was what caught Rinoa's attention as she regained her senses, consciousness coming back after her momentary black-out. She sat up, and saw Red twitching, and started to rise, to loose magic to assist him.. However, for an instant, she paused, and looked down at the floor around her. She could feel a rhythmic thrum in the dirt all of a sudden, a sense of power within the dirt and rock and stone around her.

Rinoa closed her eyes, and dropped down, putting a hand to the dirt. She ran a finger along the ground, sensing the pulsing heartbeat of the earth beneath her feet. She reached out with her mind, in a manner she had only done before while in her church in the slums, and touched the lifeforce within the dirt, whispering to it. She felt a subtle change in the pulsing rhythm of life, and she continued whispering to it, pulling it and calling on it.

The ground began to shake, and she continued whispering to the planet, asking for its aid, and began to direct it to help her against the Guardian Diablos. Then, as she did so, the ground suddenly shook violently, and in the center of the chamber, the ground _bulged._

A rising hump of rock and dirt rose, twisting and expanding like a living thing, and Diablos saw this. Red was instantly forgotten, which gave the beat a moment to clamp both his claws and his jaws on the Guardian's fingers. Diablos yelped in pain, and its grip slackened, allowing Red to suddenly spring free, darting away. Diablos turned to face him, when the dirt and stone began to shift, taking on a humanoid form. The stone began to define itself, arms and legs and a head appearing, with sculpted humanoid muscles appearing on its body, and the head taking on a human shape. The stone rapidly came to resemble a titanic human with gray skin, riding up to face Diablos eye to eye.

"_Titan?"_ Diablos asked suddenly, and the massive humanoid creature nodded. _You side with humans?"_

"_I side with Cetra who call for the Planet's aid,"_ responded the thundering, gravely voice of the creature Rinoa had channeled. And just like that, Titan reached down, and grasped at the earth. He pulled up, ripping a segment of the ground free. Diablos' glowing eyes widened, and it began to backpedal, when the Titan simply hurled the stone slab directly at Diablos. The demon was crushed backward against the cavern walls by the impact, which sent massive rumbles through the room and knocked Rinoa off her feet. She landed among her unconscious friends, and began to rise, when a hand clamped over hers. She looked down, to see Squall suddenly awake, eyes wide as he took in the furious battle raging. Titan rushed at Diablos, hammering his fists into the demon as it was pinned against the wall.

"_Leave these mines, Cetra!"_ Titan bid them as Squall struggled to his feet. Zell and Quistis were also awakening from the mysterious sleep, and saw the battle raging as well. They quickly scrambled to their feet, Quistis drawing her rante. Red suddenly appeared among them, slipping into their midst as the two Guardians fought one another.

"What's happening?" Squall asked urgently, obviously confused, but not just by the battle raging before the group. Diablos dug its claws into Titan and sent pulses of shadow into the enemy Guardian, causing the spirit of earth to roar in pain and fury. He clasped his massive hands around Diablos' neck and lifted the other Guardian up, before slamming it into the ground hard.

"We have to go!" Rinoa shouted, and she waved her hands frantically. Squall nodded and turned, rushing toward the far end of the mining chamber and toward safety. The cavern shook all around them as Diablos and Titan fought ferociously. The group ducked into the mine tunnel and left the shaking cavern behind them though the could hear the roars and impacts of the battle for many minutes as they ran through the mines, only slowly fading off into the distance. Finally, after several moments of silence, Rinoa slowed down and looked back.

"What is it?" Zell asked, and she shook her head.

"I think its over," she said.

"What was that thing?" Quistis asked. "Was it what knocked us out?"

"No," Rinoa replied, thinking. "It was a malevolent elemental spirit. It must have taken residence in the mines before the miners found it, and when they dug it up . . . ."

"That' why the mine was shut down," Squall finished, and she nodded. "What about that other creature?"

"Titan," Rinoa replied. "A spirit of the earth. I asked for the Planet to protect Red while he was suffering,. I thought it would cause a quake or reshape the ground, but I wasn't expecting the Planet to send a fully developed earth spirit to save us."

"Thank you," Red said suddenly, and Rinoa nodded after a moment. "Without your aid, I would not have survived."

"Its nothing," she replied, and Zell chuckled.

'Nothing, huh?" he said, shaking his head. "By the way, what happened to us? One second we were looting the mines, and then pow!"

"Some kind of sleeping gas?" Quistis asked. "The mines may have had some chemicals in the air that influenced our brains somehow?"

"No," Squall replied, shaking his head. "If it was we wouldn't have been awakened during the battle. Something weird happened back there."

"Yeah, I had a funny dream," Zell commented. "I was a big soldier in the Shinra army back in the Wutai war."

Squall turned to face Zell, eyes slightly wider than normal in surprise. What had he just said? A soldier of Shinra, in Wutai during the war?

"Seventeen years ago?" Squall asked, and Zell nodded.

"Yeah, the war against Lord Godo's samurai, Battle of Yamatada Pass," Zell replied, offhandedly. "Though from what I heard, Sephiroth won that battle after a team of men inside the fortress broke down the gates."

"Who did you see in that battle?" Quistis asked, and Zell scratched his head.

"Few hundred Shinra troops, more samurai, archers. I was a big soldier named Ward, working with-"

"-Kiros and Laguna," Squall answered, and Zell blinked in surprise.

"I was Kiros," Quistis added, nodding. "Then were you Laguna, Squall?" Squall nodded, clearly confused.

"I'm not sure what this is," he said after a moment's thought.

"Perhaps we should save contemplation until a better time, perhaps," Red interjected. "I do not know if that Guardian is stopped, and I would rather leave its home before it comes looking for us."

"Good point," Squall said with a nod. He pointed down the tunnel, and Zell nodded as well. The brawler lit another flare and started down the path. "Let's move out. I'd rather get someplace with light, wouldn't you?"

* * *

-

* * *

Well, that's the end of this chapter. Man, took me forever to do. Funny thing was, the first few pages were sitting on my hard drive for a month or two before I got down to the rest over the last few days! I picked up this image of Rinoa and red fighting Diablos while the others were asleep, and then this image of Laguna fighting Wutai samurai, and latched onto both images like a rabid pit bull.

Anyway, this is setting things up for many later events. I wanted to handle Laguna flashbacks, but unlike in Gunblade, these will be like the Sephiroth flashback, showing the events in italics while the other characters are doing their things.

The Wutai War will be the main focus of the Laguna arcs of the storyline. I have plans laid out for the whole war itself and how it ultimately relates to this storyline.

And now for the mighty shout-outs of shining justice!

Angel-Broken-Sorrow: Gee, I hope you can wait for my slow-ass updates. With Gunblade out of the way I hope I can really get to posting this more and more. Summer vacation is coming up, which will really help me out. Sadly, I got disqualified from the Marine Corps, which does mean I have the whole summer to myself rather than boot camp. I'll be putting that time to good use.

The carnage thing . . . It will pick up, trust me. XD

There will be more character development. Everyone has a role in the storyline, and I think it will rock.

Daniel Wesley Rydell: Epic? You call this epic? Wait until the next few chapters. Fort Condor, baby!

Tsuyunoinochi Koukyo: Thanks!

JadeAlmasy: You think I'll answer that critical of a question? Irvine, being the mysterious sniper? He could very well be . . . Only I and Xenogears know!

Kaiser-Kun: Who said Raine wasn't in that part of the story? Eehehehee!

Akira Stridder: I'll never tell!

Anime-Obsessed fan: Yeah, it took me a while, but I'm finally posting…after Gunblade ended, of course. This and Chimera should be getting updates more often. FFVII and FFVIII characters may pop up soon!

Peter J. Marcroft: Whoa! You reviewed? Heart attack time! That's like getting a review from Ashbear or someone else really important and famous!

My intro is nothing special. It was largely copy-pasted from Gunblade saga anyway, so I don't take much pride in it myself. I felt I could do better after finishing Gunblade, so I may just change that chapter around to make it work much better.

Villianous crossover may occur here, but not in a tremendous sense. The villains of FFVII are much better than FFVIII's (excepting Seifer, heh) and I want to write more evil dictators and corporate scheming with the Shinra villains.

I'm quite eager to read any further reviews you give me, Marcroft-sensei!

Jryu: Your guess as to Seifer may be right. It may be wrong. It may make me laugh at how far off it is. It'll be cool once you find out, which won't be for a long time.

Who said that those guys in the flashback were a cameo? Biggs and Wedge may appear, but may not, depending on if I have a place for them.

That everyone? Great! Now, I have to sleep.

Until next chapter!


	14. The Old Flame

_Chapter 13: The Old Flame_

Crimson strands of sunlight shot down through the gaps in the leaves overhead as the quintet moved through the forest. Their time in the mines had spanned the better part of the day, and the sun had been setting as they left the mines. A short mile of open, grassy plains had stood between them and a long stretch of woodland, which Squall had quickly led the party into to avoid prying Shinra eyes. He could hear the distant sounds of helicopters far away, and knew how dangerous it was to stay on open ground.

Red remained on point, forging a path though the woods, while the others followed behind him in a loose, staggered line, their eyes on the woods. There was always the potential danger from creatures mutated by Mako energy use, and this forest was fairly close to a moderately powerful Mako reactor in the hills to the south at an old Shinra military base.

"Where are we going from here?" Quistis asked Squall as they walked.

"We need to find Sephiroth," Squall replied. "Our best bet is to find information as to where he's going. Shinra would have that."

"They won't just give it up," Zell remarked, and Squall nodded.

"We need to get information from them without them realizing it," Squall explained. "Our best bet is the naval base at Junon. Its about a day's travel from the western edge of this forest. Quistis and I are former Shinra military; we can sneak inside."

"Fine by me," Zell replied. "Okay, since we're out of the mines, I was wanting to know-" he turned his head toward Rinoa and Quistis. "How did you two do that stuff you did?" Rinoa chuckled to herself, while Quistis actually blushed a little bit. Quistis pulled back the sleeve on her left arm, exposing her bracer, and tapped one of the yellow lights on it.

"Blue magic materia," Quistis explained. "Very rare. Not many people know how to use them, either. It absorbs magic from other sources and lets me use it right back."

"You can steal other magic?" Squall asked, and she nodded.

"Really, any type of magic," she explained. "I don't actually need any spell-casting materia as long as I have this. If the spell is used on me or someone near me, the materia memorizes it, and . . . ." she shrugged.

"That's how you used the Zolom's fire magic," Rinoa added, and Quistis nodded.

"That could be useful when we find Sephiroth," Squall muttered, almost under his breath.

"Okay," Zell continued, looking to Rinoa. "Your turn. How'd you summon that thing in the mines?"

"Its hard to explain," Rinoa answered after a few moments. "I asked the earth to help me, and Titan appeared on its own. That's about it, really."

"You asked the Planet to help you?" Zell muttered, obviously confused.

"She _is_ Cetra, Zell," Quistis reminded the brawler.

"Yeah, but . . . ." Zell replied, shaking his head. "Ah, forget it. This stuff's too over my head anyway. Let's just get to Junon so we can find Sephiroth and kick his ass."

Squall didn't disagree with Zell's sentiments, and led them deeper into the forest, trailing Red as he paved the way for them. The sunlight continued to fade, casting the forest around them into darkness as their boots crunched over fallen leaves and they meandered through the wooden pillars rising up around them. The clear sky was shifting to a cloudy, overcast one as the hours passed, shrouding the forest in darkness. Quistis nearly tripped over a fallen log in the dim light, and Squall finally called for a halt.

"Lets set up camp," he advised, and Zell nodded, glad for the rest.

"Get a fire goin'," he said with a grin, and Squall shook his head.

"Fire will give away our position," he replied. "Shinra might come looking for us." Zell whined something in protest, but didn't actually argue with Squall. However, to his surprise, Quistis shook her head.

"Out here, I'd be more worried about monsters than Shinra soldiers," she explained. "Beasts are afraid of fire, after all. The flames would keep them away."

"She's right," Rinoa added, looking around her at the woods. She gestured toward them, her eyes distant and unfocused. "There are creatures in the woods, but I don't think that there are any Shinra soldiers around here. The forest would know . . . ." Squall nodded, knowing better than to argue with someone who had senses he couldn't even imagine he possessed.

"And while I do not need to sleep," Red cut in from the camp's perimeter, stepping into view. "I do need to rest. My eyes cannot watch the forest all night, and fire would help with maintaining a watch."

Squall nodded again at Red's assessment. He looked around to the others, and shrugged. While the ex-SeeD wasn't the leader of the group in name, he seemed to be in practice, which was something he was unaccustomed to and not too happy with. He didn't like having to make the important decisions, and was willing to acquiesce to the others' demands.

"Okay," he said. "We'll get a fire set up. Nothing too big though, I don't want to alert Shinra if they are looking for us." The others nodded, and Zell quickly set out to recover some dead wood for kindling. In the meantime, the others quickly ate, wincing at the bad taste of protein rope and canteened water, and set up their sleeping bags. When Zell returned, Squall used a weak bolt of fire magic to set the wood ablaze, and thus was the small fire started.

Squall quickly gave orders for the watch, setting himself up as first guard for the night. The others agreed and bedded down, and within minutes the exhausted party fell asleep, excepting Red and Squall. Red XIII moved aside, separating himself from the others, and laid down on a patch of thick grass, and closed his eyes, breathing rhythmically. Squall watched him for a moment, noting how he seemed to slip into some sort of distant, meditative state, and then the ex-SeeD turned around, watching the forest all around their tiny camp.

* * *

The clouds had passed halfway into Squall's watch, and the stars and moon had emerged, casting brilliant silver light through the trees. He sat back, keeping his gaze toward the sky, but his ears alert for any noise indicating a threat. He rarely had gotten to enjoy a clear night like this, especially in polluted Midgar, and never within a forest. The leaves of the canopy overhead transformed the silvery light above into a series of shining shafts of cool, faint white light that filled the dark forest all around. It was beautiful, and Squall reveled in the darkness, the beauty, and the silence.

He heard a faint stirring within the small camp, and glanced over, to see Rinoa sitting up in her sleeping bag. Her eyes were cast up toward the clear night sky and the faint lights coming down. She glanced over to the fire, and saw that Squall had let it die down, distracted as he was and with the illumination provided by the starlight. She looked over at where he sat, and was surprised to see him looking her over where she lay, a curious look on his face.

"What?" she asked quietly, her voice carrying across the camp in the silence. She sat up straighter as he looked her over.

"You look . . . Different in the moonlight," Squall admitted, and Rinoa blushed. Squall glanced down at his side and drew his gunblade, holding the reflective metal out before her so she could see. Rinoa was surprised to see the moonlight seeming to twist around her shape, giving her a faint silvery aura over her body. Faint sparkles of white light passed before her, twinkling in the soft illumination.

"I've never seen this before," she whispered, surprised. "Living in the undercity of Midgar for so long . . . ."

"It must be because you're Cetra," Squall commented quietly. Rinoa nodded, and looked up at the moon overhead, watching it intently.

"I never had gotten a chance to get outside of the city," she said after a moment. "I couldn't hear the Planet clearly in Midgar, except at the church. But out here, I can hear everything. The earth, the forest, the wind . . . I can even hear the moon and the stars."

"What does it sound like?" Squall asked.

"Beauty," she whispered. "Natural beauty, like a perfect melody being sung by a million voices, all of them perfectly accompanying one another. Though, it feels like the harmony is being lost, and discordant notes are mixing in slowly. Nothing really noticeable until you hear the song clearly, like I can out here. It must be the reactors."

She looked at Squall, who was also staring at the moon above. His eyes glittered in the night, shining a bright blue in the darkness.

"What was it like in SeeD?" she asked, and Squall looked back down, meeting her eyes for a moment, before his gaze went distant.

"It was tough," he said. "We trained constantly. Every morning we ran ten miles before breakfast, and after that was physical training all morning. The weapons trainers were merciless, and the political and corporate trainers were even worse. They pushed us very hard, and only the toughest and strongest and most ambitious passed each exam."

"You said the mission with Sephiroth was your first one?" Rinoa asked, and Squall nodded.

"Technically, it was my second," Squall explained. "My first was the final exam, which was a mission for Shinra. My unit was assisting with putting down the rebellion in Costa Del Sol that occurred a year ago. We came in on landing skiffs. There was a lot of anti-ship fire from the shore . . . ." Squall trailed off, and then looked away suddenly. Rinoa looked in the same direction, and they both heard a faint snapping sound, as if someone had stepped on a leaf.

Squall scanned the trees, and froze, catching a faint reflection of light, silvery illumination bouncing off a reflective metal surface. He narrowed his eyes, spotting the shape of the mirroring object. It looked like a blade, long and slender, and the person holding it momentarily came into view. Squall saw a gloved hand, a white sleeve, and above that-

Squall shot to his feet, snatching up his gunblade.

"Squall, wait!" Rinoa called after him, and the rest of the camp was quickly startled awake as Squall plunged into the woods without another word.

_-and above that, a sword-shaped, blood-red cross emblazoned on the sleeve._

* * *

The figure had dashed out of sight the moment Squall began to pursue, but the ex-SeeD kept his ears tuned and alert, hearing the faint rustle of shifting leaves and the occasional snapping twig as he pursued his target. He spotted a flash of white ahead as the figure shot through a shaft of moonlight, and the glimpse confirmed who it was.

"Hold it!" Squall ordered, and he raised his hand, firing off a bolt of lightning in the direction of the retreating figure. It spun suddenly, snapping up its long, slender blade, and the weapon caught the bolt on its broad side. The shot of electricity deflected off the weapon, into a nearby tree. Squall skidded to a halt.

_He's junctioned. Good. Let's make this interesting._

"Been a long time," came the voice of the man Squall was pursuing. "Comrade."

"A year ago," Squall answered, with a nod, and he heard a chuckle.

"Still like the scar I gave you?" he asked. Squall didn't immediately answer, and the man laughed again. "Come on, Squall. Let's see if your footwork is still as good as its always been." With that, the white-clad figure spun, crouched, and the leapt straight up, fifteen feet, into the lower branches of one of the trees. Squall didn't hesitate to follow, leaping upward into the branches as well. He landed on the same bough his opponent stood on, feet perfectly balanced.

He stared into the steel-gray eyes of his opponent, who grinned. His hair was a bit longer, and his immaculate coat was stained and tattered in a few spots, but otherwise, he looked the same, still sporting that cocky trademark grin of his.

"Are you still with SeeD, Seifer?" Squall asked, and Seifer Almasy chuckled.

"Grew out of it," he replied with a shrug. "Too many regulations, and they didn't like a free thinker like me running around. They tried to 'retire' me, so I buried a few of their men and went on the run." Squall frowned. He knew what happened when important Shinra employees and officers were "retired" by the company. Seifer was lucky he survived and escaped.

"Why are you out here?" Squall asked, and Seifer nodded back the way Squall had come.

"Saw the fire, had to see who was hanging around these woods," he explained. "Wasn't expecting to see you here, though. You still keeping your edge, Squall?"

"I could ask you the same question," Squall replied, and Seifer's smirk grew. Without another word, he stepped forward quickly, balancing perfectly on the bough, and dashed at Squall, spinning around into a wild arcing slash.

The slender gunblade known as Hyperion clashed with Squall's rising weapon, the Revolver meeting it halfway as it had so often in the past. Squall applied pressure, forcing the slender blade down, and stepped forward, colliding with Seifer hard and tossing the other ex-SeeD backward. Seifer easily regained his footing and balance, and snapped his gunblade across to intercept a heavy cleave from Squall's weapon. The two blades clashed again, and Seifer reversed Squall's maneuver, throwing Squall's weapon out wide and diving in behind it with a quick thrust. Squall ducked back and beneath the blade as it cut past him, and chopped across in an arcing cleave that forced Seifer back a step, his back almost colliding with the tree. Squall rushed forward, slashing hard at the cornered Seifer, who deftly parried, blades clashing in the night air. Seifer suddenly stepped forward, pushing Squall back, and then jumped straight up, grabbing another branch over his head and flipping up onto it.

Seifer landed easily on the branch, and it took Squall less than a second to chase him down, mimicking his rival's maneuver and spinning onto the branch, landing with his feet balanced perfectly, precisely in time to intercept a sword slash diving for his face. Squall rose, countering with a quick chop that sent Seifer backstepping along the length of the thinner branch. Squall chased after Seifer, cleaving at his opponent again, and Seifer met the charge with a counter, weaving his gunblade within Squall slash and ducking low, jabbing his free hand into Squall's gut. The impact staggered Squall for a moment, forcing him a step back, and Seifer spun around into a high kick aimed at Squall's head. Revolver's wielder saw the attack coming a split-second before it struck, and ducked beneath the kick. Squall stabbed down at the knee on the leg Seifer was balancing on, and the other ex-SeeD had to hop back, almost losing his balance as his other foot came down. Squall pursued, cleaving again with his gunblade in a high left slash which Seifer caught and sent spinning up over his head with a deft parry.

Squall released his gunblade with his left hand and rushed forward, crashing into Seifer and barreling him backward, left hand closing over his shirt. The ex-SeeD spun, tightening his fingers, and hurled Seifer off the branch, toward another tree. Seifer hurtled through the air for a moment before crashing hard into the solid bark and falling down, but not before he caught another branch in his free hand and flipped up onto it. He was regaining his footing as Squall dropped down to the same level, shaking the branch they both now stood upon. Not wasting any time, Seifer led into his next attack with a straightforward thrust, which he quickly retracted and then spun around into a low cut aimed at Squall's legs. Squall saw the feint for what it was, and hopped over the slicing gunblade as it dove low. He hit the branch with his feet balanced, and rushed forward, chopping hard at Seifer's head as the other ex-SeeD began to stand.

Hyperion dove inside the cleave and stopped Squall's attack dead in the air between the two fighters. He pushed up, trying to throw Squall back, but his rival refused to move, and finally, Seifer shrugged and lashed out with a boot at Squall's feet. His kick impacted Squall's left ankle and knocked it loose from the branch, throwing off Squall's balance and forcing him to take a ponderous step back. In that moment, Seifer rose and dashed forward, stabbing hard at Squall's chest.

Squall slapped his free hand on Hyperion's flat, knocking the weapon down past his left hip, while bringing the Revolver up and aiming it at Seifer's face. Seifer's own left hand rose, catching Squall's wrist and redirection his gunblade over Seifer's left shoulder.

The two rivals crashed into each other headfirst, skulls crunching together and hurling each other backward. Seifer tumbled off the branch, and Squall tried to grasp at the bough himself as he flopped over the edge, and both of the rivals crashed hard into the ground thirty feet below.

"Ow," Seifer complained. He pushed himself up, a leaf clinging to his forehead, which he blew away in annoyance. "What did they make your head out of, mythril?"

Squall muttered something unintelligible as he sat up, rubbing his head as well.

"That was fun," Seifer added with a chuckle. "Lets go again."

"What the hell?" muttered a voice, and they both looked up, to see Quistis, Zell, and Red, standing over the dazed pair of fighters, apparently confused at what just happened. Rinoa stood behind them, looking at Seifer in abject shock.

"Seifer?" she asked, and he blinked, eyes focusing on the dark-haired girl.

"Rinoa?" he muttered, confused.

* * *

"Thank Hyne," Zell remarked after swallowing a chunk of cooked chicken. The others around him, surrounding the small camp, were also eating the meal Seifer had provided from his own rations. Squall, too, was eating, though more slowly, considering his old rival's unexpected appearance in the woods.

"You're Squall's old friend, right?" Quistis asked to Seifer, and both he and Squall snorted simultaneously at that notion.

"Interpreted loosely," Seifer explained, raising a finger. "Yes."

"More like two guys who beat each other up every chance they get," Squall muttered, and Seifer glanced at him.

"I see why you guys made him your leader," Seifer commented.

"We have our reasons," Rinoa added with a slight giggle.

"So, Rinoa, you and Seifer are . . . ." Zell began to say, and stopped at a glare from Seifer.

"We _were_," Rinoa answered after a moment of silence. She glanced over at Seifer, who tore another piece out of his part of the meal. The obvious implications of what had passed were apparent on everyone's minds - those two didn't want to talk about it. Squall, Quistis, and Zell knew that the unexpected meeting was a happy thing for the two, but they needed a moment to sort out what had happened since they'd last seen one another.

"Not since after Costa Del Sol," Seifer continued after a few moments, and glanced pointedly at Squall. "Shinra tried to retire me, but I didn't let them. Ever since I 'quit,' I've been a freelancer, doing mercenary work and the occasional act of banditry or piracy against Shinra."

"Why are you out here?" Quistis asked. This place wasn't where Shinra routinely operated. It was a pretty quiet region of the continent, after all.

"Heading for another job," Seifer explained. "There's a fortress about thirty miles south of this forest, called Fort Condor. They're paying good money for any mercenaries who can come help them fight."

"Fight who?" Zell asked.

"Who else?" Seifer replied with a grin. "Shinra. Condor's got the money, but they don't have the men or firepower to hold off Shinra forever. Rumor has it that Shinra is massing troops for an all-out offensive against Condor soon. One of the last bastions of resistance against Shinra on this continent. Would be a shame to see it fall."

"Damn shame," Zell muttered, and Squall could tell from his voice and expression precisely what the brawler wanted to do.

"Anyway," Seifer said. "What about you guys? Why are you all out here on the edge of civilization? Heard something nasty happened in Midgar a few days ago. Plates falling, reactors exploding, train massacres, assault on the Shinra HQ. Said an ex-SeeD traitor was behind it all, and I knew that I wasn't involved, so I thought it might have been you, Squall."

"You guessed right," Squall replied. "We were behind most of what happened, though Shinra were the ones who dropped the plate and destroyed the train. We weren't the ones who assassinated President Shinra, either."

"Wished we were," Zell muttered.

"Who did?" Seifer asked, taking a drink from his canteen.

"Sephiroth," Squall answered, and Seifer suddenly spat a geyser of water from his mouth.

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinkin', too," Zell remarked.

"_The_ Sephiroth?" Seifer asked, and shook his head before anyone could answer. "Damn, and I thought I was gutsy. Good luck with that shit."

"You're not going to help us?" Quistis asked, and Seifer shook his head.

"Goin' for Condor, not a suicide mission," Seifer replied. He patted a pouch on his side. "I'm in it for the money nowadays. Money and killing Shinra. I'll let you guys handle Sephiroth. Hell, with Squall on your side, you may stand a chance."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Squall commented, and Seifer chuckled. His rivals stood up, dusting off his trenchcoat, and reaching for the heavy pack he was carrying.

"Socializing was fun and all," he said to the surprised looks of his comrades. "But I gotta go. Important as I am, that war won't wait for me to arrive. Need to get moving."

"Seifer," Rinoa said suddenly, and he paused, looking to her, and from his expressions, almost stopped. Almost.

"I'll be at Fort Condor if you're looking for me," he said quietly, and without any further words, Seifer Almasy turned and walked off into the moonlit trees, past the light of the rekindled fire. His coat disappeared into the trees.

* * *

The next morning, general consensus had been reached. Both Zell and Quistis wanted to aid any allies they could in fighting Shinra, and naturally wanted to go straight for Fort Condor right away. Rinoa had also confided that she wouldn't mind heading for Condor as well, for no other reason than to see Seifer again, something that made Squall feel oddly. He wasn't sure precisely what the feeling was, just an odd annoyance that Rinoa was still interested in Seifer. Red XIII remained ambivalent about the whole thing, neither caring if they headed that way or not.

And Squall . . . .

Squall, as de facto leader, considered steering clear of Condor himself, not risking further exposure to Shinra. But any allies against Shinra would be useful, and he didn't want to have to rely on that mystery sniper who kept helping them out. Condor would provide shelter and supplies as well. And, in all honesty, Squall would not mind fighting alongside Seifer again. He hoped he could convince Seifer to join them, considering they were old comrades in arms. If nothing else, Squall could probably hire Seifer on if need be. He'd feel good with his rival fighting alongside him once again.

Thus, with a clear majority wanting to go toward Fort Condor, Squall set their course south that morning. Soon enough, they left the forest and crossed an open plain, marching south to join the war against Shinra.

* * *

"Yes sir," he reported, watching them from a distance, smiling. "They're moving south. Toward Fort Condor. You were right, they are willing to join the war there. Shinra won't know what hit them."

He paused listening, and nodded, brushing off his weathered coat as he did so.

"Yes sir, I'm watching them. No harm will come to them while they're at that battle, I can guarantee that."

He stood on one of the ridges near Fort Condor, binoculars pressed to his eyes as he observed his charges. When they had disappeared into the forest, he wasn't sure where they'd end up. He was glad he'd guessed correctly. Rumors of war could bring one running fast . . . Especially with the obvious Shinra buildup to the south.

"Understood, Mr. President, I'll keep them safe for as long as I need to. Goodbye."

He rose from his crouching position on the ridge, and looked to the mighty edifice of Fort Condor. He knew he had one hell of a task ahead of him with this battle.

* * *

-

* * *

Erg. Short chapter. Setting things up for a major battle next chapter! I hope I can do it the same justice that I did with the big Garden War in Gunblade!

Anyway. I liked this chapter, especially the Crouching Tiger-style combat in the treetops.

**Peptuck's Shining Shout-Outs of Great Justice!**

**Masamune:** I don't like Cloud because,e xcepting his damn jaw-dropping backstory, there's nothing there. He's bland and boring beyond that. He has no personaility (which itself isn't so bad, considering he's been in a tube for five years) but I would have been happier if he'd kept his "Shut up, I don't care about you" personality fromt he beginning of the game, rather than start wussing out during the later points of the game. He was cool in Midgar, but by the end of the first disc, he was a wimp.

**Daniel Wesley Rydell: **I'll take that as a challenge. :P

**Angel-Brokensorrow:** You want carnage? Wait until I release my hidden project I'm working on (aside from, y'know, this, and Chimera, and Legacy, and . . . .)

I am sort of dissappointed, but I really don't mind now. I'm going to try for the Navy or Air Force, though I can hear my old NROTC budies laughing their asses off if I go Air Force. :P

**AngelofDeath345:** 1: Yes. Don't trust Squall's memories, they are as effed up as Cloud's. :P But that's a given with this story.

2: Yes. Its also a Seinoa as well, to a degree.

3: That's a given. :P

4: I'll never tell! Mwahahaha!

I placed Rinoa in Aeris' place because she does have that "magical girl" vibe,a nd I really wanted to get dark with Squall at the end of the story. The story has a "moderately happy" ending planned for it.


	15. Red Dawn

_**Chapter 14: Red Dawn**_

Fort Condor could easily be described as a site any army would break against, like waves on a cliff face. The description was true; in hundreds of years of occupation by one defender or the next, never had it been taken by force. The old fort was honeycombed with thousands of feet of underground tunnels and hundreds of chambers. The mountain it stood upon was almost hollow now, every room filled with weapons and munitions and soldiers.

At least, that was what Squall had heard, but he began to doubt it as he looked upon the structure as they neared from the north. The mountain was actually little more than a steep hill, and at its top was a towering structure, a large Mako Reactor. No steam rose from it, and no power seemed to be exuded by the structure. However, what made the reactor more majestic than imaginable was not the edifice itself, but what stood atop it.

The creature was called a Condor, and it was the greatest winged beast that had ever flown in the skies of this planet. It was taller than the reactor, and its wings, folded up flush against its body as it perched atop the structure, would likely have reached so far out as to cast the entire fortress and hill into shadow. The Condor was a rare beast, a benevolent, nonviolent avian, and every generation a Condor would land on the mountain of Fort Condor and lay its eggs, which would hatch one year later. For this reason was the fortress given its legendary name.

"No wonder Shinra is here," Quistis commented. "They can't run the reactor with that Condor up there."

"Then why don't they remove it?" Zell asked.

"Likely because the people here are protecting it," she replied. "Some people are proud of the Condor, and others, like Seifer said, are opposed to Shinra. Mercenaries, people who call it their home, people who love the Condor, and people who fight Shinra . . . They all have a common reason for being at Condor, I'm guessing."

Red XIII had been scouting ahead, as usual, and he came back a short while later, as they neared the mountain, with important news.

"There is a Shinra army massing south of the mountain, apparently being reinforced by infantry and armor from Junon," he stated grimly. "All told, I estimate at least three to four thousand men, plus tanks and artillery."

"Air support?" Squall asked, and Red shook his head.

"They have helicopters, but the Shinra army appears to be lacking any fighter support. My guess is that they do not want to destroy the reactor atop the mountain."

"They'll probably launch a primarily infantry-oriented assault," Squall said with a nod. "With such a delicate target, they'll need to limit the amount of heavy firepower they bring to bear. How prepared were they?"

"They looked as if they were still readying for an assault," Red replied. "Forces were still coming in from Junon and arming themselves. I suspect we will have at least a little time before the Shinra army will attack Condor."

"Then we shouldn't wait," Rinoa added, walking past. "Let's hurry!"

Squall agreed, as did Zell and Quistis, and the party stepped up their pace to the fortress, hurrying across the plains and circling to the east, away from the Shinra army assembling west of the structure. They hurried over rough, broken ground and up the faint incline that marked the beginning of the slope that would become Fort Condor's steep hill. Red found passages that allowed his two-legged companions to easily move over the rough ground, and soon they were very close to the fortress, the hill looming up before them.

It was also Red who spotted the subtle cleft between two cliffs along the approach to the fortress, and after a moment of scoping the entrance, he hurried back to his comrades.

"There is another passage, hidden from prying eyes," he explained. "It leads close to the base of the fortress. I spotted what looked like armed guards protecting the entrance."

"I'll check it out," Squall replied. "Take me there." With that, the pair quickly moved over the rough landscape, and rapidly found the hidden gap in one of the ridges that ran, as Red had explained, all the way to the base of the towering fortress. And along that path, camped quietly within a well-disguised (or rather, well-disguised to eyes other than Squall's or Red's) cave, were a half-dozen well-armed men. Squall moved out into the open, in full view of the guards, and walked toward the entrance. He heard a single alarmed whisper, and detected the subtle whisper of weapons being raised and pointed at him.

"Relax," Squall called out. "I'm not with Shinra."

"Identify yourself!" snapped a brusque military voice.

"My name is Squall Leonhart," he answered. "Have you heard of-"

"What?" One of the guards pushed open the camouflage netting covering the entrance, and looked out, eyes wide. "Holy shit! He's right! It _is_ Leonhart!"

"The guy who fought the President on top of his own headquarters?" asked another soldier, and the first nodded. A moment later, the entire group of guards had emerged, totaling at five wide-eyed, blatantly green young men in their early twenties, and one older, experienced man with clear military bearing. A bandana wrapped around his forehead. The older man looked over the ex-SeeD for a long moment, and nodded.

"So, it _is_ you," he said. "We've heard a lot about you and your friends. Shinra likes to keep a lid on the media, but we can read between the lines well enough . . . and word gets around to those who know where to get the news. Heard you and yours gave Shinra a hell of a time in Midgar."

"I hope we did," Squall answered. "And that's part of the reason why we're here, now."

"I understand," the soldier answered, grinning. "In all honesty, we could use all the men we can get around here. Its looking like the next war to hit Condor's going to be pretty rough."

"We spotted the Shinra army massing to the west," Squall said, nodding. "We knew you needed all the soldiers you could get, so we're here now."

"Hell, you guys are welcome to join in," the soldier added grimly. "Get your people over here. Hope you brought a battalion, because we might just need them."

"I wish we were that lucky," Squall replied, and glanced back behind him, only to see that Red had already turned and bounded away, to fetch their comrades. Within a few moments, Rinoa, Zell, and Quistis came into view, led by Red. The soldier looked over the group, and then at Squall, and frowned.

"Is this it?" he asked, a bit disappointed. "You guys _are_ AVALANCHE, right? From what we heard there had to be a hundred or more of you guys to do the damage you did." Zell burst out laughing at that, and shook his head.

"I guess we should take that as a compliment." he replied. "But no. Its just the five of us, hate to say."

"Well, even if it is just the five of you, you guys are more than welcome to join up," the soldier explained. He turned and led the group into the room they had been guarding, with his comrades replacing the camouflage netting over the entrance. Recessed into the cave was a rope ladder leading up a couple dozen feet toward a metal trapdoor set into the ceiling. "Right this way." They started up the ladder, and Red once more proved his incredible manual dexterity by managing to climb almost as well as his bipedal companions.

The trapdoor opened, and a dozen rifles were pointed down at them for a second. The soldiers protecting the room above quickly retracted the weapons as their guide gave them the all-clear signal, and they were all too happy to help the members of AVALANCHE into the antechamber once they realized who their guests were.

Their guide led the quintet through the passages within Fort Condor, a winding, twisting series of tunnels cut and dug out of the dirt and stone that made up the massive hill. Wooden beams supported the tunnels, and small lights were strung along some passages, while fluorescent lightbulbs and lamps lit other tunnels. Side chambers broke off from the tunnels, leading into sleeping chambers, ammunition dumps, equipment rooms, and so on.

Squall was caught off-guard by the level of awe and attention he and his comrades received as they walked through the lower tunnels of Fort Condor. A motley assemblage of soldiers and civilians, many wearing bandanas like the troops that had greeted them, stared at them as they passed, as if watching legendary heroes walk in their midst. Squall considered asking their guide just what the nature was regarding the stories they'd received involving AVALANCHE's exploits. He would have to admit, what they had done inside Midgar had to have shocked the world; attacking the Shinra Building, fighting Rufus on top of the structure, and then escaping the entire combined Shinra military would certainly catch _anyone's_ attention.

"Command center's up through here," their guide explained as they ascended into larger, wider tunnels and passages further up the side of the mountain. They passed through a doorway into a room barely larger than AVALANCHE's former bunker underneath the slums, though this one was decidedly less well-furnished. A wide wooden table, a white-board, and some maps hung up on the wall defined the furnishings in the room, and a wide, narrow slit in the wall that opened into fresh air provided them a good view of the fortress' western approach, and the massed Shinra army gathered there.

A single blonde man was standing over the wooden table, clad in faded and worn brown and tan camouflage fatigues, a gray bandana wrapped around his head as he looked over a map spread over the table. Another soldier was standing at the narrow window in the wall, using a pair of binoculars to scan the approach and watch the Shinra forces.

"This is General Randolph, commander of Fort Condor's forces," the soldier introduced the man at the table, who looked up. The officer nodded as he saw the newcomers, and rounded the table, extending a hand toward them and offering them a small smile.

"Well, not really 'general' mind you," he explained as he moved among the quartet of humans and shaking their hands, and nodding toward Red. "That's just a title they gave me, since I've volunteered to lead the troops here." He shrugged. "But anyway. I've heard about you people. The five of you caused quite a stir among the Shinra forces in Midgar, enough for them to apparently send agents of the Turks after you. I'm impressed."

"If only that wasn't getting Shinra following us a third of the way across the continent," Quistis remarked, and Rinoa chuckled.

"Well, if you're trying to dodge Shinra, you chose the wrong place to be," Randolph explained. "We've got close to three thousand enemy troops assembled out there, and it looks like they'll be launching an attack in the next few hours. That's a lot more than we've fought before . . . I'm not sure if we'll be able to hold them off this time."

"What's your force disposition?" Squall asked, walking around the table and looking at the map.

"Ah, we've got about a thousand combat-ready troops," Randolph explained, shaking his head. "Unfortunately, while we've got spirit, training and weaponry is something we're bit short on."

"Give me a run-down," Squall asked, noting several important locations on the map, including choke points along the western approach and good locations for ambushes and counter-strikes.

"Of our forces, most of them have firearms," Randolph explained. "A lot of them are older models, cheap weapons available on the black market. Some automatic rifles, sub-machineguns, bolt-action rifles."

"What about artillery?" Squall asked, looking up at Randolph. "Heavy weaponry? Machineguns? Armor support?"

"A few anti-tank rifles," Randolph explained. "Some missile launchers and mortars. We're running low on ammunition, though, as we've been using them pretty heavily. Shinra can't use their heavy weapons on us because they want the reactor intact, but that hasn't stopped us from using ours right back."

"I'm guessing that they're camped outside of maximum range," Squall commented, and Randolph nodded.

"Otherwise we'd be dropping bombs on their heads while they're napping," he replied.

"It looks like the only safe ground to attack from is the west," Squall commented, and Randolph nodded. He tapped several spots on the map.

"All these other approaches are sheer cliff faces or steep, open approaches. Not even Shinra is stupid enough to attack through them. But the western slope is level and there's a lot of ridges; it'll provide them plenty of cover as they advance. That's where most of the fighting has taken place. We've also been spending the time since the last attack readying the approaches with rock slides to trap the Shinra forces as they advance."

"Any chance they'll try to air-drop troops on top of the reactor?" Squall asked, and Randolph shook his head.

"They tried that the first time, but the Condor didn't take too well to helicopters buzzing around over its head. It took to the sky and tore four of them apart before they realized their mistake. They're not going to try to hit it with missiles or snipers, either; that might result in it falling down atop the reactor, or the missiles destroying the reactor. Ground assault with infantry is their only recourse."

"That makes things simpler for us," Squall remarked. "Okay, I've got some ideas. I've fought against and alongside Shinra forces before, so I know how they operate. If they think they're winning, they'll charge headlong into an ambush. I've seen it happen before, and it'll happen again."

"I understand," Randolph said with a nod. "What are you proposing?"

"An initial sortie," Squall replied. He tapped a ridgeline halfway down the mountain slope. "The only thing is, we'll have to make it look like its not a sortie. I propose taking about half of our forces and positioning them on this ridge. When Shinra advances, we'll open fire, and engage them with as much ferocity as we can muster. Make them think that this is where we chose to make our last stand. Then, when it looks like we're about to be overwhelmed, we retreat."

Squall traced his finger up the map, threading between two ridgelines.

"And here is where we spring the trap. The remainder of our troops will be positioned along these two ridges. We'll wait until the majority of the Shinra pursuit is between the two ridges, and then slam them from both sides." Randolph considered his words for a few moments, looking over the terrain, before finally nodding.

"I like it. I'd also suggest that we have troops covering the remaining approaches up the mountain as well; at the very least we'll know if Shinra sends a force to flank our positions when we retreat."

"Good idea," Squall answered. "You said you had rock-slides ready to drop along the upper approaches?"

"Yes," Randolph answered, nodding.

"Good," Squall said. "We should have men ready to trip them in case they do attempt to flank us."

As Squall was speaking, the door leading outside slid open. He and Randolph glanced up, to see a familiar figure enter the briefing room. Squall had been expecting to see him before now, actually, and was surprised he had just appeared.

"Squall," Seifer remarked. "Glad you made it. I just got finished scouting the approach. They're going to move in the next couple of hours. Looks like they're getting mortars ready to shell the approach, too."

"They've never done that before," Randolph remarked, and Squall glanced back over the map. The hastily conceived he'd come up with based on what he knew didn't take enemy artillery - even light mortars - into effect. He frowned. Their strategy relied on holding a few fixed positions, but enemy artillery could quickly ruin that plan. Even light mortars would cause them trouble.

"We'll need a strike team to take out the mortars," Squall said, and Seifer grunted.

"Someone stealthy, yeah," he replied. "I overheard part of the plan when I was outside. Looks like you'll have to be the one leading the defense on the ridge, Squall, if we want to make this look legitimate. That means we'll need someone else."

"Like you?' Squall asked, and Seifer chuckled.

"Stealth ain't my game, Squall, you know that." Seifer turned and started out of the room suddenly, descending into the fortress.

"Where are you going?" Squall called.

"Chow," Seifer grunted, and closed the door behind him.

* * *

"So, I noticed something odd about this place," Zell remarked as he sat back in one of the creaky old wooden chairs in one of Condor's living chambers. Quistis had flopped down on one of the cots, exhausted from the long trek to Condor, but she looked up as Red XIII settled onto a thick rug in the corner of the room. 

"What's that?"

"Everyone here wears bandanas," Zell explained. "And not just on their heads. I've seen guys with them wrapped around their arms and legs too. Some of them have a whole bunch of them. I haven't seen anyone here who doesn't wear at least one. What gives?"

Quistis stared up at the ceiling for a moment, remembering something regarding the custom of military forces wearing bandanas, and trying to isolate it.

"I think it started a few decades back, among Shinra guerillas and commandoes," she said, thinking. "After a long time and a lot of fighting in harsh environments, they would start making and wrapping themselves in bandanas. They usually did it to mark major battles they'd fought in, or to remember comrades that they lost in combat. I suppose that these guys are using the same idea."

"Y'know, that sounds . . . Kind of appropriate," Zell said, sitting up. He paused, eyes going distant for a moment, and then slowly nodded. "I think we should join them. Get some bandanas for ever person we've lost and every battle we survived." Quistis gazed at Zell for a second, curious.

"Would there be enough bandanas for all of us?" she asked with a sudden smile, and Zell shrugged. He started counting off on his fingers, and frowned.

"Wow, we've been through a lot. Between the reactors, the train battle, the assault on Shinra HQ, Sector Seven, Kalm . . . ." Zell shook his head slowly. "And that's not counting all the people Shinra took from us."

"The rest of AVALANCHE is still intact," Quistis said, but Zell shook his head again.

"Not AVALANCHE," he replied. " . . . _other_ people Shinra killed. The people on the train, the people in Sector Seven, Rinoa's mom, and a lot of others, too . . . ." Quistis watched the brawler speak, and she detected something in his voice, something darker.

"You never told me why you wanted to stop Shinra," she said cautiously. Zell blinked, and then closed his eyes.

"Yeah, well, aside from stopping them from destroying the planet, I've got my own reasons," he admitted. "But I'm not talking about them right now, okay? We've got a battle coming up, and Squall's getting everything ready." Zell rose to his feet, clenching his fists.

"And if we're going to get ready too, the first thing we'll need is cloth. Lots of cloth for bandanas, if we're gonna show just how much those bastards have hurt us, and how much we're going to pay them back."

* * *

Fort Condor didn't have much in the way of fine dining,but the rations they _did_ have were better than protein rope. Seifer settled back in a chair in a chamber somewhere deep inside the hill, where he wasn't being bothered by anyone, and absently chewed on the rations he'd gotten from the fort's galley. 

_Well, they're here, now,_ he mused. _Have to keep an eye out. Suppose its my job to keep them from getting-_

There was movement in the passage outside, and he looked up, to see Rinoa standing at the portal tunneled in the rock, seeming a little hesitant to enter the room, but definitely having something to say.

"Seifer?" she called, and he grunted.

"Hey, come in," he replied after a half-second's delay. She stepped into his room, and he watched her move, still amazed at her poise and beauty. That was what had caught his eye back when he'd first met her in the first place . . . .

"I'm glad to see you again," she said after a couple of seconds, and he nodded.

"Same here," he replied. "How long has it been? About a year since I went on that mission, right?"

"That's right," Rinoa replied. "Though . . . I was a bit surprised when you came out of nowhere in the forest. I don't think anyone was expecting to run into someone like you." Seifer nodded, chuckling to himself.

"But, y'know, I was expecting you guys, actually," he replied. "I'd heard what happened in Midgar, and I followed the chatter on Shinra radios to figure out where you guys were."

"You were listening in to Shinra?" Rinoa asked, surprised. "I thought . . . My father said that Shinra encrypts their radio transmissions."

"Well," Seifer answered quickly, "They don't do a good enough job. But it's a moot point, as my radio stopped working a little bit into the forest. But I was able to figure out that you guys had made it to the swamps, and following that I was able to guess what direction you guys would be headed. Turns out I was right."

Rinoa nodded as he finished talking, and after a second managed a wistful smile.

"I wish we'd met again under different circumstances," she said. "There's a whole lot we need to catch up on. And . . .there's a lot I need to tell you."

"You're Cetra, I know," Seifer said bluntly, and Rinoa blinked.

"How did you . . . ?"

"Little things I picked up," he explained. "Like how you always seemed distracted in the church, or how plants seemed to grow around you so easily, and how Shinra troops kept screaming "Find the Ancient!" all the time on their radios. Stuff like that." He shrugged. "Still, doesn't change anything. You're still who you are, just now you've got a price on your head."

"Shinra put a bounty on us?"

"Oh, yeah," Seifer replied, nodding grimly. "They want the rest of your bunch dead, but you're wanted alive, naturally. You all should watch your back . . . ." Rinoa nodded.

'Thank you for the warning," she said, to which he shrugged and waved his hand in the air.

"Nothing," he grunted. Finishing his rations, he stood up. "Well, I have stuff to do around here, like making sure your boyfriend's plans don't explode in our faces."

"My _what_?" she answered in surprise, and Seifer burst out laughing.

"Just checking," he replied with a smile. "Seeing if you were still available." Rinoa put her hands on her hips and frowned at Seifer as he stepped past her, and put a gloved hand on her shoulder. He gauged her reaction, and was not at all surprised to see her flinch slightly at the touch, as if she was uncertain what to do.

"We'll catch up later," he finished, and stepped out of the room and walked down the hallway, leaving Rinoa by herself, pondering what he meant with his last words. After a couple of moments, she stepped back out into the corridor beyond and looked up and down for Seifer. She didn't see him, and with a tired sigh, she picked a direction and started walking. Several moments passed in silence.

"He's hiding something," came a voice behind her, and Rinoa jumped. She turned around, he remind catching up with her perceptions, and identifying the speaker.

"Red, you need to stop doing that," she hissed. "I nearly jumped out of my skin."

"My apologies," answered the crimson beast as he settled back on his haunches in the corridor. "But you heard him, correct? Everything he said?" She nodded, remembering Seifer's short, quick responses.

"He was defensive," she said, and Red closed his good eye and nodded.

"There were other inflections inn his voice, indicators that he was not being entirely sincere," he continued. "You should be wary around him. He is a self-defined mercenary, after all. What if he decides the bounty that is on our heads is too good to pass up?"

"He wouldn't betray us," Rinoa answered. Red didn't immediately reply, instead using one of his rear legs to scratch behind an ear.

"Are you certain?" Red asked as he finished. "Squall was loyal to Shinra a year ago, and yet he has changed. Can you be so certain the Seifer who you have just spoken to is so like the Seifer that you knew a year previous?" Rinoa didn't answer, and Red rose, his glowing tail flicking about the corridor.

"You should take care, Rinoa," Red advised her as he turned away and started walking up the corridor. "Watch that one closely."

* * *

"Okay, everyone ready?" Squall asked, about an hour after he had finished devising the battle plan. He glanced around the makeshift briefing room, which had a few minutes before been just another storage chamber deep within the mountain. A wide table, some folding chairs, and a map of the area around Condor had changed things, and seated around the room were the principle members of Condor's resistance: all of the remaining members of AVALANCHE, General Randolph, a dozen of his officers, and, leaning against the back wall, Seifer. Zell was looking over the map intently, even as he was tying yet another of a dozen bandanas around his biceps for some odd reason, Quistis and Rinoa were giving the placement of troops scrutinizing glances, and even Red XIII was paying attention. 

"Since Shinra troops can only advance up these particular corridors," Squall was explaining, mapping out a quartet of approaches leading up to the mountain, "Their paths will have to intersect at this central point. This ridgeline right here is where we hit them.

"I've divided our forces into three companies. Alpha Company consists of about half of our forces. That unit will be led my myself, Seifer, and Zell. Alpha Company will wait here, on the ridge, and will engage Shinra forces as they advance. Once it looks like we're about to be overwhelmed, Alpha will fall back up the central passage running up the side of the mountain."

"And that's where we trap them," Randolph added, and Squall nodded.

"Bravo Company will wait on the ridges flanking the approach, and once Shinra troops have filled the passage, they will fire down onto them from elevated positions. General, you'll have command of those troops." Randolph nodded. Squall then tapped the top of the hill on the map.

"Charlie Company is our backup. They'll cover the other two routes up the mountain and will be manning the rockslide traps. If Shinra tries to flank, we'll crush them."

"What about artillery?" asked one of the Condor officers. Squall pointed toward the base of the hill.

"Before the battle begins, we'll have a small unit of skirmishers descend through the rear passages and slip through the ravines along the south side of the hill. They'll flank the artillery, and once the main force moves up the mountain, they'll attack the artillery crews and disable them." Squall looked up to Quistis. "Quistis, can you handle this?" She nodded immediately, agreeing.

"I'll handle it," she replied. She glanced over the map. "But I'm not sure how fast we'll move with the terrain like this."

"I can assist with that," answered Red XIII suddenly. The beast turned his good eye toward Squall. "If you do not have any objections, of course."

"No, none at all," Squall replied quickly, covering up his surprise that Red had actually volunteered to help, and his even greater surprise that the crimson-haired creature was deferring to him.

"Once the pincher attack is engaged, Alpha Company will counterattack down the main passage," Squall continued. "At this point, we will attempt to push the enemy down the hill. Between the pincher attack and the turned advance, we should throw the Shinra regulars into enough disarray to give us the advantage and drive them off."

"Sounds good," Randolph finished, nodding. "An excellent plan, Squall."

"Let's just hope it doesn't get us all killed," Seifer added.

"Your confidence is underwhelming, Seifer," Squall muttered, and the mercenary grinned and shrugged.

"That's what I'm here for. Disappointing comrades and gutting people I don't like."

* * *

Fifteen minutes after the briefing had been finished, Squall has located a side chamber that was relatively unoccupied, and had settled down into a chair. His gunblade was held before him, the revolver chambers open. He removed each loaded shell by hand and checked their individual charges, and then visually inspected the components to make sure that everything was in working order. His hands moved with practiced ease as he cleaned and inspected his weapon. 

The simple, basic and repetitive exercise had one other benefit: it was calming down his anxiety. Squall didn't admit it, but he _was_ a little nervous about this battle; the plan was hastily conceived and wasn't perfect. A lot could go wrong with such an intricate plan. The last time he'd been in a serious, large-scale battle like this was when they had retaken Costa Del Sol over a year previously . . . .

Squall banished his pre-battle jitters as he reloaded and snapped the revolver chambers shut. He paused to check his knives, to make sure they were still sharp, and heard motion outside his room. He glanced up, and saw Rinoa standing at the entrance, uncertainty on her face, as if she wasn't sure if she was interrupting anything.

"Something wrong?" he asked her after a second, getting concerned. She hesitated, and then shrugged.

"You . . . You didn't give me any place in the battle, like you did the others," she explained. "I wasn't sure what you wanted me to do." Squall was silent for a moment, and sheathed his knives.

"You're not hardened like the rest of us," he explained after a second. "I didn't want to put anyone green in the line of combat."

"Green?" Rinoa remarked, frowning, putting her hands on her hips. "I've helped out plenty so far!" Squall held up a hand.

"Wait, listen," he said quickly. "Yes, you've helped us fight Shinra, but this is different. This is going to be a full-scale battle. Its not going to be like our little skirmishes. People will be dying all around you. Its going to be hell out there, and you haven't been trained to deal with that kind of chaos."

"I'm not going to let you fight this without me," she replied firmly, and Squall sighed again. After a moment's thought, he glanced back up to her, and nodded.

"I don't want you fighting on the front, but I _can_ think of a good place for you . . . ."

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, Squall peered through binoculars as he lay prone, watching the Shinra camp below. The ex-SeeD was outside Fort Condor's protective tunnels, atop the ridge that Alpha Company was rapidly taking positions at all around him. The soldiers moved as quietly as five hundred of their number could, remaining out of sight of the blue-armored Shinra troops below as they took to cover, readying for the onslaught. Behind him, Zell and Seifer moved up behind the ex-SeeD, peering out as well. 

"How are we looking?" asked Zell as he prepared to move to the opposite end of the ridge to anchor it. Squall scanned over the Shinra forces, before answering.

"They're positioning mortars to cover their advance," he answered. "Most of the army is moving forward, though," he added, watching as the initial scout units ran ahead of the main advance, the rest of the Shinra army filtering up along the routes leading to the central ridgeline. They advanced cautiously, ready for booby traps or ambushes. Getting the drop on them would be difficult for the troops on the ridge, but that wasn't their intent in the first place anyway.

"I estimate we've got ten minutes before we can spring the ambush on them," Squall finished, looking back as the last of his troops slid into place across the ridge. He noticed a group of raw, inexperienced soldiers gathered together in a close-knit group, and he waved at them, ordering them to scatter. He wasn't going to let a single grenade to wipe out a whole squad of his men at a time.

"Right then," Seifer answered, nodding, hand on his gunblade. "Let's set the table." He moved off toward his end of the line, and the remaining troops readied their weapons, checking and loading their rifles. Zell did so as well a moment later, toward the other side of the line. The motley assortment of troops laid down or ducked behind rocks, a few enterprising troops taking a moment to pull and drop mid-sized rocks in quick, makeshift fortifications.

Silence cut across the ridge as the last of the troops was in place, a still, expectant void of sound, populated only by the faint rustling wind and the quiet breathing of the men all around them. Squall waited, touching the Guardian Forces in his mind, preparing to summon one of them at the opportune moment, the signal to begin the assault. Below, the Shinra army continued to move up, scout units advancing ahead of the main strike forces, securing the approaches. Hundreds of men advanced up the hill, a swarm of blue-armored ants led by red-armored elite troops and a number of green-armored officers. They charged up the hill as quickly as they were able, their metal rifles gleaming in the sunlight.

Squall waited with baited breath, ready to issue his signal as the enemy advanced, and the troops awaited his command with equal anxiety, fear, and anticipation.

* * *

Ernst Heidegger was not a patient man, but he knew when to be cautious. The President was adamant that they take Condor, which had been a thorn in the side of the Shinra military for years now. The Condor's presence alone was bad enough, but the fact that there was a solid bastion of resistance this close to Shinra's doorstep, and right between two of their core strongholds - Midgar and Junon - was a monumental embarrassment to the attempts by the Shinra-controlled media to assert their dominance. It was bad enough that far-off places such as Wutai or Cosmo Canyon were still free of Shinra control, but to have one so close to their own heavily-controlled territory was even worse. Not to mention that Rufus wanted no havens for AVALANCE on this continent, and Condor would have shone out as a beacon for the rebels if they escaped the mines. They had to crush the resistance, and _now_. 

Heidegger refused to wait for another additional three battalions to arrive at Condor from Junon - he had more than enough troops to wipe out the remaining resistance now, fortified or not. He didn't care about losses, either, and was determined to prove to Rufus that he could get the job done. His army was larger and better armed than these rebels, and had the full weight of Shinra's military might behind them. These fools had no chance to stand against him.

Thus, Ernst Heidegger stood at the entrance to his command tent as he watched the troops advance up the mountain, a tidal wave of unstoppable forces, the testament to Shinra's military might walking headlong into the enemy's territory to crush them beneath their bootheels. He chomped on a cigar, chuckled to himself, and waited for the inevitable victory.

* * *

The scouts had their weapons trained on the ridge, well within range of the first assault. Squall watched them as they advanced cautiously, aware of their vulnerable position, even as the main Shinra force began to exit the channels in the rock and gather before the ambush position. The ex-SeeD peered out over the enemy force, and sighted a pair of green-armored officers directing the army's advance. He marked them, and waited for the officers to move into range. 

"Standby," he whispered, and the troops around him tensed up and relayed the command down the line. Squall kept his eyes on the officers as they and the main contingent neared to within a few hundred feet. He touched his Guardian Forces again, and waited, patiently, anxiously, for the moment to strike-

They entered the killzone.

Beneath Squall's sleeve, the red materia flared, and a crack of lightning filled the air, rain suddenly pouring out of the clear sky down onto the Shinra soldiers. They froze, surprised by the sudden shift in the weather, and then lightning slammed into the ground before them. Several men shouted in shock at the flash of electricity, and then the bolt of light transformed into an eyeless winged snake-like being, lights flashing across its body. There was only a moment's time to realize what they faced before the Shinra soldiers were covered by a torrent of lightning, blasting through their formations and over the two commanding officers. A hundred men were hurled off their feet as the lightning crashed and danced among them, and the specter of Queztocotl withdrew in a flash of static electricity.

The Guardian Force had barely ended its attack when five hundred rifles and sub-machineguns erupted along the top of the ridgeline. A torrent of steel, a rain of bullet casings, and a tidal wave of roaring reports echoed across the ridgeline as the Condor soldiers let loose into the Shinra troops below them. Hundreds of men fell instantly as the ambush went off, some Condor troops recklessly emptying their entire magazines into the enemy. Squall focused once more and called forth the raging demon of Ifrit, which burst from a fiery orb over the field of battle and cast its glowing golden eyes on the troops below. A cascade of fire flew from the demon's arms and into a portion of the field, burning blue-armored troops to the bone and melting their armor and weapons in their hands in a cataclysm of reddish-yellow hell.

But the Shinra soldiers, while off-guard, were disciplined and did not break ranks under the onslaught. Across the field, as they dove for cover and dropped to their knees or stomachs, they raised their rifles and returned fire. A storm of gunfire to match and exceed that of the Condor soldiers erupted from below, over a thousand men returning fire all around the ridgeline. Dozens of Condor troops fell in an instant, riddled with bullets. Squall ducked behind the ridgeline even as a young soldier fell to the dirt beside him, his chest shredded by dozens of bullets. All around him, the less-experienced Condor soldiers fell back behind cover under the intense gunfire surging up from below.

"Hold position!" Squall ordered as he focused and stepped out, firing a blast of lightning into the enemy ranks below, striking down two foes. "Hold the line! Return fire!" At his command, several troops did manage to lean out to return fore, the more seasoned and experienced soldiers among them leading them in the exchange of ripping metal bullets.

Then a storm of explosions filled the air around Squall as enemy mortar rounds fell on his position, dozens more of the Condor soldiers were blasted part or hurled away by the artillery rounds. Men scattered, some out into the open where they were cut down by the enemy below, and there were shouts and calls for retreat as a second volley slammed into the ridge. Squall shouted at the top of his lungs, keeping the soldiers organized and engaged as he fought on.

Smoke, roaring weapons, screams and shouts, brass casings, and bullets filled the air around the ex-SeeD as he continued to rally his troops and launched spells down into the enemy, even as the ridgeline seemed to tear itself apart all around him.

* * *

Quistis could hear the dull, hollow _whoomphs_ of firing mortars and the distant clash of combat up on the hillside as Squall, Zell, and Seifer's forces fought on, under the rain of destruction. She crouched low to the ground, behind a boulder, and advanced slowly, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mortar teams. Behind her, two dozen soldiers advanced with her, the extent of the skirmishing team Squall had given her to strike the mortar positions. 

There was movement beside her, and she looked up to see Red slink back around behind the boulder, returning from his scouting trek.

"A large number of men, more than forty, one hundred feet ahead, just beyond the ridgeline," he explained. "They have set their mortar position there to bomb our forces."

"Any other mortar positions elsewhere?" Quistis asked, and Red shook his head.

"Their current position gives them the ability to fire at any point along the cliffs or hillside. They need to take no other positions to fire on our troops," he added. Quistis began to wonder how Red had figured all of this out, but decided not to question his judgment. He had already shown remarkable mental ability already . . . .

"Let's move," she said, nodding toward him. "Lead the way."

Red started off, and Quistis and her skirmisher unit followed as he threaded his way through a series of boulders and broken ridgelines, until they reached the base of a small hill. Atop the hill they could see well over a full platoon of men clustered around a dozen metal tubes atop bipods, angled toward the hillside. The Shinra soldiers loaded the mortar launchers, carefully adjusting their angles, and let fly with another volley of shells over the hill and toward the ridgeline. Two men manned each mortar, one aiming while the other loaded, and the remaining dozen troops stood guard around the top of the hill.

Quistis knew that they didn't have time to wait around and get into position; they had to strike now, for every shell that was fired was another group of their soldiers or possibly friends that would die. She glanced to Red, who nodded, clearly thinking the same thing, and gestured to her troops to launch a full-on attack. She raised her hand toward the enemy and fired a blast of ice magic, and they raised their rifles. The storm of deadly-accurate gunfire tore into the sentries on their side of the hill, eliminating them in moments, and the Condor warriors rushed up the hill even as the sentries fell. Shouts of alarm and surprise filled the air, and gunnery crews abandoned their mortars as the skirmishers burst over the top of the hill, Red XIII leaping into the midst of the enemy. His claws flashed out, ripping the life from one man as he landed in their midst and sprang on the offensive.

Quistis was right behind him, her rante snapping up and into a man's chest in a quick swing of her chain, and the skirmishers with her opened fire. The mortar crews were still going for their weapons as they were cut down. Red fell upon another sentry as he rushed toward the battle, and Quistis cast another spell, an arcing bolt of lightning that cut down two more of the enemy. The remaining Condor troops continued to fire as the few Shinra survivors rushed to engage them, taken completely by surprise.

Within seconds, the remaining sentries were down and the mortars were silenced. The skirmishing unit moved quickly to set demolitions around the mortars and then retreated as quickly as they came, before any other enemy troops could rush to the scene of the battle. The bombs planted, the Condor warriors retreated, setting off the explosives as they abandoned the hill and disappeared into the ravines beyond, leaving nothing but explosive flames and corpses in their place.

* * *

Hidden atop the cliffs on either side of the channels leading up to the top of the hill, the remaining troops of Fort Condor could only watch helplessly as their comrades weathered the storm of artillery and gunfire. General Randolph stared grimly as he crouched behind a boulder, scanning the battlefield with his binoculars. 

Rinoa watched the explosions cover the top of the ridgeline, and horror swept through her at the sight. She lost track of Squall, Zell, and Seifer in the roiling clouds of smoke, but moments later, magic burst from the swirls of dust and debris, striking down more Shinra soldiers. She watched in helpless fear as the ridgeline took a second barrage, and then a third, and then a fourth, the Shinra artillery pounding away at their defensive positions with ruthless lethality.

But as the bombardments continued, Squall fought on, firing blasts of magic. On either end of the ridge came more blasts of ice and lightning and fire, as Zell and Seifer anchored either end of the defensive position as best they could, enduring the bombardments with stubborn tenacity. None of them wielded firearms like the other troops did, meaning they had to rely on magic to strike at their foes, but that could also be a hindrance; bolts of lightning stood out on the battlefield, and that would draw attention from the enemy below, which would in turn draw gunfire.

Rinoa watched the battle unfold, and saw the explosions cease after the fourth bombardment, which heartened her, but only a little. The enemy below was swarming around the ridgeline, moving to flank and envelop the defenders even as their comrades below the ridge kept them pinned down behind cover. Already some of the Shinra troops had mounted the ridgeline and were fighting the Condor troops in close quarters with rifles, knives, and tonfas.

She forced herself to focus, and closed her eyes, tearing her vision away from the battlefield below. She had to help her comrades, and in order to do that, she filtered out the roar and screams of the battlefield before her, and focused on a deeper sound, an intrinsic and flowing melody that thrummed beneath her feet and hands as they touched the stone: the song of the planet itself.

* * *

A gloved hand slapped down over an enemy rifle, knocking the weapon down and away from Zell's stomach. The Shinra soldier squeezed the trigger, and a burst of gunfire slammed into the ground behind the brawler as he planted a swift right cross over the soldier's faceplate. The helmet crumpled inward, and the soldier was hurled backward, dead or unconscious. Another soldier came in right beside the fallen one, and Zell's left hand slammed down over the rifle once more, knocking it down with such force that it was torn out of its wielder's hands, breaking a finger as it went. The brawler caught sight of another soldier raising a rifle toward him out the corner of his eye, and clamped his right hand over the disarmed trooper's throat and lifted him up. He moved the seized soldier in the path of his comrade, and the soldier's body shook under the impact of bullets, even as Zell called up a bolt of flame from his materia and sent it crashing into the shooter. He then spun and flung the body of the grabbed soldier into a cluster of enemy soldiers clambering up onto the ridge. 

On either side of the line of Condor troops, Shinra soldiers had mounted the ridge and were attacking in close quarters. Condor troops met them, but undisciplined as they were, many were falling to the better trained Shinra regulars. With heavy gunfire coming from below, the Condor troops couldn't keep the enemy from streaming over the rocks and ridgeline to attack them. In the swirling chaos of the artillery bombardment and the flying dust and debris and bullets, the troops were disoriented and unable to mount an effective resistance.

Naturally, though, that was where Zell came in on his end of the line. An uppercut slammed into another Shinra soldier, doubling him over and rupturing armor and organs, and launched him into the air. Zell then stepped forward into a rising side kick that smashed into another soldier's chin, snapping his head back and cracking the man's neck as he was flipped backward through the air. A tonfa crashed into the side of Zell's head, shaking him for half a second, until he grabbed the Shinra soldier's wrist and flipped him over into the air, before smashing a boot down into the man's chest with bone-crushing force. Even as he was finishing off that foe, Zell sent a bolt of magic into the enemy's midst, a blast of ice that struck down a pair of Shinra soldiers. He leapt over the fallen enemy as more Condor soldiers, inspired by his fierce example, fired upon the enemy trying to surround the brawler. With fellow soldiers covering his flanks, Zell fought viciously to anchor his end of the line and keep the Shinra advantage of numbers from crushing their defense.

On the opposite end of the line was a similar story, though it was told through a slender, whipping gunblade, as opposed to the fists and feet of a raging brawler. Seifer Almasy flowed among is enemies, his light-weight weapon striking and stabbing with deft precision. A Shinra soldier swung a tonfa at him, to have it batted away and countered with a swift and lethal cut to the throat, severing his arteries. Another raised his rifle at the mercenary, to which Seifer shot toward him in a quick leap, knocking the rifle aside with a quick parry and spinning around, gunblade slashing into the man's neck and severing his head. Gunfire slashed at the mercenary, and he leapt backward, magic crackling down his fingers as he pumped a fire spell into the firing foe, burning away his armor and the flesh beneath it.

The mercenary ducked forward into a roll without missing a beat as two more soldiers opened fire on him, and came up before them with gunblade cutting viciously. Hyperion slashed through one man's throat before flying backward, stabbing into the second soldier's gut. The mercenary squeezed the trigger, and a flash of sonic destruction sent the remains of the unfortunate soldier flying backward off the weapon. Magic chased the flying soldier, a flash of flame that crashed into another soldier and tossed him away. More Shinra soldiers swarmed up around the rocks and the ridgeline, trying to overwhelm Seifer's position, and he dove into the enemy horde heedlessly, gunblade rending brutally into the Shinra troops.

But while Seifer and Zell were tearing into the enemy and anchoring either end of the defensive line, it was Squall, at the center of the ridge, who kept the Condor troops rallied. He was constantly moving and shouting, directing fire at enemy concentrations, heartening his troops, and launching bolts of magical energy into the enemy forces below. Soldiers who were cowering behind cover took heart as he neared, and emerged to return fire even in the face of overwhelming enemy gunfire.

Amid the smoke and swirling dust and chaos, Squall was the central rallying point for the Condor troops, and he called forth Quetzocotl once more, unleashing the Guardian Force on his enemies below in a storm of crackling white lightning that tore into the Shinra soldiers. Rock shattered, men flew into the air, and the gunfire below was momentarily silenced, allowing the Condor soldiers to take momentary control of the situation with a renewed barrage of gunfire that ripped into the enemy, laying low scores more Shinra troops in a matter of seconds.

Though they had regained a momentary advantage, however, Squall knew that they could not hold. The troops on the flanks would only be able to beat back the troops flanking their position for so long, and Zell and Seifer couldn't be expected to fend off hundreds of Shinra troops. Though more then eight hundred of the enemy was wounded or dead below, nearly a third of Squall's own force had fallen to the Shinra soldiers and their artillery. Many more were wounded and some were running low on ammunition. If they held their position, then they would be destroyed completely. They couldn't stand here any longer.

"Begin retreat!" Squall ordered as he launched another spell into the enemy below. He grimaced as he fired the spell; he was running low on magic, and could only afford a few more powerful spells before drawing fresh magic. He drew his gunblade as he shouted, ordering his troops to retreat again, even as his gauntlet flared with summoning magic once more. Up and down the line, Condor troops relayed the command, and men began to pull back, starting from the center of the ridgeline and hurrying up the channel in the rocks directly to their north. The troops along their flanks held their positions, guns blazing as they worked to keep the enemy from swarming upon them. On either side, Zell and Seifer redoubled their own attacks, seeming to hold either flank almost single-handedly. Shinra troops fell before them, but pressed their attack, and men on both sides were slain by the score in those few moments of hellish combat.

Squall finished his summons as the centerline troops finished disengaging and fled up the channel. Even as he was finishing, though, he had to choose where to direct the attack, as both flanks were being overrun, and then made a snap decision.

Zell was not the kind to give ground in a fight, but he had no choice at this point; the Condor troops along the flanks were suffering badly and were falling back, and he did so as well. The brawler caught a tonfa with one hand and spun the weapon's swinger around, slamming him into a boulder, and planted a kick to the man's gut that shattered his lower torso and cracked the boulder beyond. He ducked back, giving ground as he deflected another club with a left elbow and planted a solid right hook to the attacker's jaw, smashing it and launching him away.

More troops swarmed toward Zell, however, and as he backed away, they leveled their rifles at him. He dove for cover behind a boulder as a rain of steel etched across the ground in front of him and over the boulder. Covering fire from the remaining Condor troops forced the enemy into cover, and Zell emerged, leading with a blast of lightning, and dashed for the secure channel that the rest of the army was retreating to. Several Shinra troops, however, seeing their chance, stepped out of hiding and pointed their weapons at Zell, sighting on his back.

Then a torrent of hellfire cascaded over them as Squall called Ifrit down atop the enemy pursuing Zell. As the Shinra soldiers burned away into ash and molten metal and armor, the surviving troops dashed for cover, making it to the channel before the Shinra troops could recover.

Squall wasted no time observing his comrade's escape, instead turning toward the ridge where Seifer was making his stand, readying another summon to cover his retreat. However, as his eyes fell on the defenders, he realized it almost didn't matter.

Seifer was battling ferociously, gunblade cutting and slicing in the air before him in a dazzling display of violence; every cut sent another Shinra soldier to the ground. However, with the exception of barely a dozen Condor troops who were beating a hasty retreat, none of the flank Seifer had been anchoring was intact; the Shinra forces had wiped out nearly the entire force on that side of the ridge. Squall quickly focused and began to summon Shiva even as Seifer and the few surviving soldiers retreated before the hordes of Shinra soldiers pursuing them.

Shiva burst into the air as the few remaining troops rushed for the channel, and sent out a powerful wave of frigid cold that swept over the Shinra soldiers foolish enough to pursue the retreating troops. The magic stopped their advance cold - quite literally - freezing the soldiers in place. As Shiva vanished, Seifer and the ragged remains of his force rushed to relative safety, and Squall followed with the last of the surviving troops. Behind him, bullets slammed into walls and boulders, chasing the fleeing troops as they fell back.

"Inside inside _inside_!" Squall shouted as he cast another spell, and a barrage of ice took another enemy soldier off his feet as he lined up a shot at the fleeing troops. The last of the Condor soldiers rushed past Squall, Seifer hot on their heels, and the two mercenaries met an instant later. Both men broke and ran up the channel as bullets filled the air behind them, the Shinra troops firing on the run. Stone and dust screamed through the air, but both men made it inside the channel without taking more than a few near-misses that nicked their clothes.

Towering cliff faces and ridges rose up on either side of the two ex-SeeDs, and they followed the remaining Condor troops - les than two hundred and fifty out of the five hundred they had started with - as they closed in on a series of sandbag and concrete bunkers directly ahead, where the channel opened up to the top of the hill. Behind them, they could hear Shinra soldiers shouting and calling for pursuit, chasing the clearly routed enemy. The two mercenaries barely managed to jump over a sandbag barrier, where Zell was crouched behind, when rivers of gunfire shot toward them, slamming into their defensive emplacements.

"Wait for it," Squall hissed as the surviving men frantically reloaded and tightened bandages. The Shinra forces closed in, continuing to fire, believing they had the enemy pinned down. They advanced, clogging the channel with hundreds of men, as hundreds more moved around the passage and tried to envelop the defensive position via other routes.

"Wait for it," Squall whispered. More bullets slammed into their position, the enemy drawing closer, almost into grenade throwing range. Squall touched his Guardian Forces, readying them for another strike. Seifer clenched his gunblade in his hands, and Zell's fingers twitched nervously.

"_FIRE!"_

At that moment the entire remaining Condor military rose from their hiding places along the channel, shouldered their weapons, and took sight at the enemy below, clogged tightly together and with no cover. Grenade pins were popped, and the few missiles that the Condor soldiers had were launched on trails of burning rocket exhaust. Explosions shot up and down the channel, amid the tightest concentration of the enemy, shredding through the blue-armored soldiers like scythes cutting wheat. Hundreds of rifles blazed, and gunfire stormed down upon the Shinra soldiers amid the explosions, felling hundreds more in a matter of moments.

Squall, Seifer, and Zell, and their surviving troops arose as the Shinra advance faltered, the men firing at them turning their eyes upward at the ambush. The Shinra troops, frozen in split-second indecision, were prefect targets, and the survivors of Alpha Company emptied their magazines into the enemy in a storm of righteous vengeance. The three leaders of the force dropped storms of magic upon the enemy, and lightning and fire cut through the hapless enemy soldiers even as they turned to face the new threat.

The survivors felt rain strike their helmets and armor, an instant before Queztocotl emerged once more. The hurricane of wind and the roar of lightning coursed through their ranks, and what few men remained standing from the gunfire and magic were hurled off their feet by the wrath of the Guardian Force of thunder.

The soldiers flanking the channel heard the screams of their comrades and the roar of explosions and gunfire, and rushed up toward the top of the hill to dislodge the enemy and pull victory from the jaws of adversity. They rushed as fast as they could, weapons ready for any ambush.

However, they found not enemy troops waiting for them, but the forces of natural rock and gravity. The ground beneath their feet began to vibrate slightly, and then grew in intensity over the next few moments, and the roar of tumbling boulders drowned out the blazing gunfire and screams of the dying. They looked up, in time to see a literal avalanche of bouncing boulders, sliding gravel, and every kind of stone in between sweeping down the passages toward them. Either side of the approach to the top of the hill was suddenly inundated with the descending stones. The lead troops stood transfixed in shock and understanding of their doom, while the middle troops turned in fear and desperation to escape. The rear soldiers, not immediately grasping the threat, served only to slow their own allies down as they fled. The rocks crashed into the lead Shinra soldiers, ran down the middle of the columns, and plowed under the shocked rear soldiers that did not break and run instantly.

The flanks were thrown into disarray as the mountain crashed atop them, and the troops in the central channel were ambushed and under fire from all directions. Officers tried to rally resistance, but they were unable to gain order amidst the chaos and the dying, and near panic took the Shinra force. Many men broke off in impromptu retreats, rushing back down the channel and to open ground where they had a fighting chance. Those who did not flee were rapidly being gunned down, and the truly unlucky ones found themselves facing the gunblades and fists of the frontline leaders of the battle as Squall, Zell, and Seifer drove into the scattered remnants near their defensive position. Arms were severed, heads and helms were cloven, and broken corpses were hurled backward amidst the chaotic gun battle.

The enemy made to flee, but Rinoa, who had been sitting silently atop the cliffs, had finished listening to the planet's earthly song, and had quietly inserted her own faint twang and chords into the order of the land. Between the ridge where Alpha Company had made its stand and the channel that was filling with enemy dead, the earth shifted, twisted and shot up in an explosion of jagged stones. Dozens of men were torn apart by the riding earth, and those that were trying to flee found themselves trapped between the rising stone and the raining gunfire. Even as they sought an escape or turned to fight back, the warriors of Fort Condor fell upon them, gunning them down in a torrent of raging rifle reports and explosions.

Those soldiers who did not throw down their weapons or were not outside the rising rock formation Rinoa had conjured were methodically cut down and sent to the cold, blood-stained stone. Less than three minutes later, the last Shinra soldier who fought on fell to the ground at the end of Squall Leonhart's gunblade, and silence filled the field.

* * *

Ernst Heidegger stared in abject terror as his men - the eight hundred or so men who were still alive - fled down the mountain, gunfire chasing them as Condor snipers harassed the routed Shinra army. 

"Re . . . retreat," Heidegger whispered, realizing the magnitude of his failure. He spun toward his officers and assistants. "Retreat! Get them out of there! Get our vehicles ready to move! Before those Condor bastards come after us! _Retreat, dammit!"_

President Rufus was going to be _furious_, and Heidegger was honestly terrified.

* * *

The total tally of the dead: far too many. 

Squall stared out over the piles of dead, and at the parts of men that were barely recognizable. He looked over the Condor troops who had struggled through the ordeal, at the brave men who had stood on that ridge and weathered hell and fought on, now waling dumbfounded across the field and looking for their fallen brethren. He looked over the jagged stones Rinoa had called and the settled boulders, and the pieces of men still visible beneath them.

_How many Shinra troops died for that reactor? How many of this own fortress' for that Condor?_

Squall didn't know, and as he looked over the carnage, carnage that _he_ had wrought, he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He glanced over its slender fingers, and into Rinoa's face, and put his own hand over hers. She steppe dup beside him, and he nodded, as if to answer her unspoken question.

They were alive, and had survived that hell, unlike so many others. They would live to see another day, at least.

* * *

"No, no, no," he muttered quietly into the radio. "You think I could do a damn thing in that mess? I was lucky, too. I could have gotten killed out there, you know that." 

The sniper looked over the battlefield below, and sighed.

"No, I didn't get a shot at Heidegger either, Mr. President," he muttered. "I did get a few Shinra troops, though. No. No sir, they don't know about me, not yet . . . But I think they've got suspicions."

He paused, and nodded.

"Yes sir, I understand. I'll keep an eye open, sir. Goodbye."

* * *

-

* * *

Yes, I know its been way too long since I updated this fic. The large-scale battle here was very difficult to write and develop for me, but I'm glad I managed to pull it off. Hopefully updates will be a little more frequent.

Until next chapter . . . .


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